Over 300,000 register for vaccination in Hungary

So far, 307,000 Hungarians have registered for vaccination against Covid-19, a state secretary of the prime minister’s cabinet told MTI on Tuesday.

Csaba Dömötör noted that vaccination would be provided on a voluntary basis and registration was instrumental in estimating public demand.

The first vaccines are expected to arrive in Hungary after Christmas and health workers will get inoculated initially.

Minister Gergely Gulyás said

voluntary and free Covid-19 testing would be offered to kindergarten and school staff who can reserve dates between December 23 and 30.

Testing will be carried out by the government offices, he said.

Gulyás also said in response to a question that the lifting of the curfew restrictions for the night of December 24 would not increase health risks significantly and the government wanted to ensure that people can attend midnight mass. He said the current special legal order will expire on February 7, but can be extended by the government for 15 days, and then by parliament which will again meet following February 15.

The epidemic will end once a vaccine is available in enough quantity, he said. The government has reserved 16 million doses of vaccine through the European Union which is sufficient for the inoculation of 8 million people.

Once 60-65 percent of the population gets vaccinated, “herd immunity” will be achieved, he added.

Asked whether people who get vaccinated will get different treatment from those who don’t, he said there would certainly be some regulations that differentiate between them, for instance by airline companies. A “vaccination book” will be an important document next to passports and IDs following mass vaccinations, he added.

He said in response to a question about digital education that the operative board would decide between the holidays whether it would be maintained after January 11.

He also said that the government would invite EU tenders to a value of several thousand billion forints between January and March, which will enable companies to get capital in a difficult economic period and to preserve or create jobs. The cabinet hopes that this will contribute to “tangible” economic growth in 2021, he added.

Gulyás said that

disputes around the local business tax cut were motivated by partisan politics, and insisted that “if right-wing mayors can manage, left-wing ones should also be able to”.

He also said that Budapest was the country’s richest municipality, and as such should easily leverage for lost revenues. The government halving the tax will leave money with businesses and “will not deprive Budapest of as much money as the opposition says, a couple ten billion forints at the most,” he said. He also said that Budapest’s revenues had amounted to 294 billion forints last year, as opposed to 182 billion in 2011.

Answering a question about the Norway Grants, Gulyás welcomed that an agreement had been reached concerning the distribution of the funds after several years of dispute. A new body made up of civil representatives of the two countries will put out tenders and evaluate bids for a combined 214 million euros, he said.

To another question, Gulyás said that

the government was not planning any measures to restrict foreign retail chains.

Commenting on a decision by six opposition parties to run on a joint list in the 2022 election, Gulyás said that an “unprincipled coalition” had been set up, arguing that nearly all the parties involved had earlier categorically excluded the possibility of working with each other.

He cited the example of Jobbik which had been set up expressly against Democratic Coalition leader Ferenc Gyurcsány, yet the party is now “eating his salt” and the same applies to Momentum, he said.

The coalition ranging from “the far right to the far left” would be obviously unfit to govern the country and their only purpose is to gain power, he said.

Gulyás said such cooperation by the opposition lacked principles, adding that their rejection of all the government’s achievements could hardly be successful and the country would suffer if they were to come to power.

• Six opposition parties join together to fight against PM Orbán in 2022