Important modification announced to the new travel restrictions in Hungary
The government announced an important modification to the previously announced travel restrictions. Countries do not have to be marked as one colour only. If the number of active cases justifies it, certain areas or regions within a country might get a different classification than the country as a whole.
As we reported earlier, the Hungarian government introduced new travel restrictions in order to prevent the novel coronavirus from being imported from abroad. Countries are divided into three categories: green, yellow, and red based on their current number of infections and the moving average of the last two weeks. Depending on which country people wish to enter the country from, different rules apply.
Read alsoNew travel restrictions introduced in Hungary: contradictory decisions were made
Now, a new modification has been introduced. The Chief Medical Officer has the authority to mark a country as one colour (like red or yellow) overall but also mark certain areas within that country a different colour.
Hvg raised the question: What is the reason behind this decision, and who does this decision benefit? As it turns out, many.
Antonio Costa, the prime minister of Portugal, previously asked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to consider giving certain regions within Portugal (which is currently a yellow) a green mark. His reasoning was that even though they have a high number of active cases, most of these cases come from 19 settlements only.
The Portuguese Prime Minister made a good point. The same could be said for a number of other countries where the whole country is considered red or yellow, even though they have smaller or larger regions with very few active cases of COVID-19, or the other way around.
For example, Romania is classified yellow, but significant differences can be seen within. Most of the new cases are registered in Bucharest and in regions east of the Carpathians. The middle of Transylvania seems to have a moderate amount of new cases (800+) while Szatmár and Szilágy Counties have significantly less (80-120).
Croatia is considered green even though an extremely high number of new cases were registered near the Hungarian border in the last two weeks. The areas around Split and Dubrovnik are particularly infected.
Austria is marked green, while Vienna – the most important city for Hungarian commuters – has the second-highest number of active cases in the country at the moment (426 active cases).
There are, of course, clear-cut cases, like the United Kingdom, which is considered yellow. Based on the current numbers, there is no region or area where the numbers would indicate a green mark.
Read alsoGood news: people travelling from Hungary to the UK are exempt from quarantine
Source: www.hvg.hu
What a mess.
I would advice that the United Kingdom is not clear cut. Scotland as a country has a very low infection rate, and working hard to reduce it. Very different approach in Scotland from the rest of the UK. There was only 11 new cases confirmed yesterday, so definitely should be considered green lighting.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
Anybody out there know if a third country citizen living in Budapest can visit a ‘green zone’ country? Would you be able to return to Hungary with no issues after that?
What about Norway, why does not Hungary allow Norwegians to enter Hungary without quarantine, given the very positive situation in Norway ?
Shambles – such unpreparedness, lacking totally in thought process and making the entire reason and purpose of this Government approved policy, a diabolical mess.
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and his Government have lots to answer in there handling of this novel coronavirus, and they will be severely and harshly, rightfully judged, in the not to distant future.
The United Kingdom, are not by far, out of the woods, in there control and management of this deadly virus.
There policies in fact appear to be playing around with this virus, challenging it, which is fraught with on going diabolical severe consequences for there citizens.
There has still not been a vaccine discovered that immunizes human beings from contacting this deadly virus.
You play around with it, temp it and tease it, and you will lose horrendously, at this point of time, resulting in additional catastrophic disasters, that will leave deeper damage into countries than we are currently globally witnessing.
Stay Well – ALL.
For anonymous, this may help. I am a UK national who is a resident in Hungary and have been informed officially by ha**********@or**.hu that coming directly into Hungary from a green country may be proved by stamps in the passport,, hotel reservation, flight tickets or in any other credible way..
For Ricsi
I agree as there are different rules in Scotland, Wales, these restrictions should no longer refer to UK- but England, Scotland and Wales.
For anonymous. Contact ha**********@or**.hu for advice.