England is on track for the next stage of lifting the lockdown restrictions next month, health minister Matt Hancock said on Wednesday.
Indoor service in pubs and restaurants will be allowed from May 17 at the earliest, according to the government’s roadmap out of lockdown. The data shows
“we are essentially precisely on track for where we expected to be at this point and that is obviously good news, it means we can follow the roadmap,”
Hancock said at a news conference.
Progress with Britain’s vaccine rollout should limit the damage from any third wave of COVID-19 infections, one of England’s top doctors said on Wednesday, adding that there would likely still be bumps in the road in the coming year.
England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam said that the
“modelling consensus is clear that we will have what is called a third wave.”
“I am personally hopeful that if the vaccine programme continues at pace, and continues to be as successful as it’s been, the third wave, so to speak, might just be a third upsurge and much less significant, because of the de-linking of cases to hospitalizations and deaths,” he said at a news conference.
“But I think it’s inconceivable to think that we will go from a period of relative calm…
with no further bumps in the road in terms of upswings in activity
between now and this time next year,” he added, saying he expected more cases, likely in the in the autumn or winter, but it was hard to know for sure.
The United Kingdom has reached another COVID-19 vaccination milestone with over half of the population having had at least one injection, health secretary Matt Hancock said on Saturday.
Official data showed a total of 33.51 million people in the UK have received the first dose, with more than 12 million people having been given both.
“It’s a brilliant milestone,”
Hancock said in a clip on Twitter. The UK’s official population is 66.8 million, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
Britain’s vaccine rollout, which has raced ahead of countries in the European Union,
means it is on track to ease lockdown measures and re-open the economy in line with its plan. “This vaccination programme is our way out of this pandemic,” Hancock added.
Officials also reported on Saturday a further 2,061 coronavirus cases and 32 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
London’s Royal Albert Hall, the O2 concert space and dozens of venues and events organisations backed a COVID-19 certification scheme to help reopen the economy ahead of the results of a government consultation.
Britain’s government is examining the role that certifying the COVID-free status of people attending shows and other events could play in its plans to lift most pandemic restrictions by June 21.
On Friday, groups including gig organisers and indoor sports venues published a letter supporting the use of such a scheme.
“We would support a blanket, industry-wide introduction of COVID-status certification on a temporary basis, to permit the full relaxation of capacity limits from 21 June,” the letter, signed by over 50 organisations and institutions, said.
“(It) could be a pragmatic solution that would enable events to resume at commercially viable attendance levels and will also give further confidence to customers that events are safe to attend.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged that any such scheme would look beyond vaccination status, suggesting that proof of a negative test or prior infection would play a role in the system. Senior minister Michael Gove is leading a review to see how the system could work.
Some lawmakers, including some from Johnson’s Conservative Party, have said such a scheme could be discriminatory and have questioned how practical they are.
But the signatories of the letter said that without COVID-19 certification, re-opening venues would not be financially viable.
From May 17, the government aims to let venues reopen with social distancing and a maximum indoor capacity of 1,000 people or 50% capacity, whichever is the lower number.
“However, given the economic threshold for most business and music events is around 80% of maximum capacity, activities under these limits will be far from sufficient to end the sector’s financial crisis,” the letter said.
The European Super League can no longer proceed, Juventus boss Andrea Agnelli confirmed on Wednesday as Italian club Inter Milan joined the six English teams in withdrawing from the controversial breakaway competition after intense criticism.
The project was announced on Sunday with 12 founding members but 48 hours later the English clubs capitulated under massive pressure from fans, politicians, soccer officials and even British royals. Agnelli said he remained convinced about the merits of the Super League despite the overflowing criticism.
“I remain convinced of the beauty of that project,”
Agnelli told Reuters, adding that it would have created the best competition in the world. “But admittedly … I mean, I don’t think that that project is now still up and running.” A source close to Inter Milan earlier confirmed to Reuters they were no longer interested in the project “in light of the latest developments”.
Italian side AC Milan, Spain’s Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid and the six English clubs were the other founding members of the league.
Liverpool’s principal owner John Henry apologised in a video on the club’s website and social media on Wednesday. “It goes without saying but should be said that the project put forward was never going to stand without the support of the fans,” he said.
“I alone am responsible for the unnecessary negativity brought forward over the past couple of days. It’s something I won’t forget. And shows the power the fans have today and will rightly continue to have.” Having triggered an enormous backlash from players, fans and football authorities, the Super League said late on Tuesday it would reconsider and look to “reshape” the project, while stopping short of throwing in the towel.
‘BEAUTIFUL DAY’
The Super League had argued that it would increase revenues to the top clubs and allow them to distribute more money to the rest of the game.
However, the sport’s governing bodies, other teams and fans organisations said the breakaway move would only boost the power and wealth of the elite clubs,
and that the partially closed structure goes against European football’s long-standing model. Players, fans and pundits celebrated the U-turns of the English teams, with some declaring the Super League dead in the water. “This is the right result for football fans, clubs, and communities across the country. We must continue to protect our cherished national game,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
“What a beautiful day for football. Let’s keep playing, let’s keep fighting, let’s keep dreaming,” said Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy. The British press also cheered the move of the Premier League clubs and the news dominated the front page of Wednesday’s newspapers.
“Their knees have gone all trembly,” screamed the headline on the front page of the Daily Star while the banner on the paper called the withdrawal as “Own Goal”.
A top official from the Council of Europe termed the project an “unfortunate initiative”
and called on an inter-governmental sports co-ordination body to urgently discuss the ramifications of the proposed breakaway European Super League. Amid fans’ celebrations, anger remained. Some pundits said the owners of the English teams would never be forgiven and called on them to pull out. “They were going to sell the souls of our major football institutions,” said Liverpool great Graeme Souness.
“I don’t know how these clubs will manage to get back on-side.”
British finance minister Rishi Sunak told the Bank of England on Monday to look at the case for a new “Britcoin”, or central bank-backed digital currency, aimed at tackling some of the challenges posed by cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
A BoE-backed digital version of sterling would potentially allow businesses and consumers to hold accounts directly with the bank and to sidestep others when making payments, upending the lenders’ role in the financial system.
“We’re launching a new taskforce between the Treasury and the Bank of England to coordinate exploratory work on a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC),” Sunak told a financial industry conference.
Soon after, Sunak tweeted the single word “Britcoin” in reply to the finance ministry’s announcement of the taskforce.
Other central banks are also looking at whether to set up digital versions of their own currencies, essentially widening access to central bank funds which only commercial banks can use at present. This could speed up domestic and foreign payments and reduce financial stability risks.
China is a front-runner to launch a CBDC. Last week the European Central Bank said it was studying an electronic form of cash to complement banknotes and coins but any launch was still several years away.
The BoE said a digital version of sterling would not replace either physical cash or existing bank accounts.
“The Government and the Bank of England have not yet made a decision on whether to introduce a CBDC in the UK, and will engage widely with stakeholders on the benefits, risks and practicalities of doing so,” the BoE said.
BoE Governor Andrew Bailey has previously said bitcoin, the best known cryptocurrency, fails to act as a stable store of value or an efficient way to make transactions, making it ill-suited to serve as a currency and a risky bet for investors.
Central banks also took a dim view of efforts by Facebook to set up its own digital currency.
Even so, cryptocurrencies have received growing interest from mainstream financial institutions, and bitcoin hit a record high of nearly $65,000 on April 14, up tenfold in the space of a year.
Sunak, launching the UK FinTech Week conference, also announced other measures aimed at maintaining the post-Brexit competitiveness of London, which vies with New York to be the world’s largest financial centre.
Since Britain’s departure from the European Union’s orbit on Dec. 31, the financial sector has faced restrictions on serving EU customers.
Sunak proposed removing restrictions inherited from the EU, including on who can trade shares in London and the double volume cap.
This would help Britain attract more “dark” or anonymous trading by big investors after Amsterdam toppled London as Europe’s top share trading centre in January.
“The consultation process aims to deliver a rulebook that is fair, outcomes-based and supports competitiveness, whilst ensuring the UK maintains the highest regulatory standards,” Sunak said.
Britain would also propose changes to companies’ share prospectuses to ensure the rules are “not overly burdensome”, Sunak said.
Queen Elizabeth and her family paid their last respects to Prince Philip on Saturday at a funeral that celebrated his naval past, his international heritage and seven decades of service in which he helped guide the queen through repeated crises.
Elizabeth, dressed in black and in a white trimmed black mask, stood alone as the funeral service began in St George’s Chapel, which dates back to 1475. Mourners at the ceremony in Windsor Castle, including Prince Charles and his sons Princes William and Harry, were limited in number and separated due to COVID-19 rules.
“We are here today in St George’s Chapel to commit into the hands of God the soul of his servant Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,”
the Dean of Windsor, David Conner, said.
“We have been inspired by his unwavering loyalty to our Queen, by his service to the Nation and the Commonwealth, by his courage, fortitude and faith.” After the nation observed a minute’s silence in brilliant sunshine, Harry and William took up their places on opposite sides of the chapel with the final resting place of Tudor monarch Henry VIII dividing them.
Philip, officially known as the Duke of Edinburgh,
died aged 99 on April 9.
The queen in 1997 described Philip as her “strength and stay” over their decades of marriage. His naval cap and sword lay on top of the coffin, which was covered with the Duke of Edinburgh’s personal standard featuring the Danish coat of arms, the Greek cross, Edinburgh Castle and the stripes of the Mountbatten family.
The choir sang a sailors’ hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save”, and shortly before he is lowered into the Royal Vault,
the Russian “Kontakion of the Departed”, a hymn of the Orthodox and Eastern churches, will echo around the ancient church.
Philip’s coffin was borne to the chapel on a bespoke Defender TD 130 in military green as a minute gun fired eight times. Before the procession, military bands spaced out across the quadrangle of Windsor Castle to play the prince’s chosen music, including “I Vow To Thee My Country,”, “Jerusalem” and “Nimrod”.
Philip, who married Elizabeth in 1947,
helped the young queen adapt the monarchy to the changing world of the post-World War Two era as the loss of empire and the decline of deference challenged the world’s most prominent royal family.
She has now been widowed just as she grapples with one of the gravest crises to hit the royal family in decades – allegations of racism and neglect by it from her grandson Harry and his American-born wife Meghan.
ATTENTION ON HARRY
Much media attention will focus on the royals’ behaviour towards Harry as he made his first public appearance with the family since the couple gave an
explosive interview to Oprah Winfrey last month.
In the interview they accused one unnamed royal of making a racist comment, and said Meghan’s pleas for help when she felt suicidal were ignored. The couple, who moved to Los Angeles and quit royal duties last year, laid bare their perceptions of the family’s attitudes in what amounted to a critique of the old-fashioned customs of an ancient institution.
Meghan said she had been silenced by “the Firm” while Harry said his father, Charles, had refused to take his calls.
Harry said both Charles and his brother William were trapped in the royal family.
Meghan watched the funeral at her home in California after she was advised by her doctor not to travel while pregnant, a source familiar with the situation said. U.S. networks showed the funeral live as did British TV stations.
Mourners eschewed the tradition of wearing military uniforms, a step newspapers said was to prevent embarrassment to Harry, who despite serving two tours in Afghanistan during his army career, is not be entitled to wear a uniform because he was stripped of his honorary military titles.
Prince Andrew, who stepped down from public duties in 2019 over controversy surrounding his what he termed his “ill-judged” association with late U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein, had wanted to wear an admiral’s uniform at the funeral, British media reported.
QUEEN ALONE
The palace emphasised beforehand that while the occasion would have the due pageantry that marks the passing of a senior royal, it remained an occasion for a mourning family to mark the passing of a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather.
There were just 30 mourners inside the chapel for the service because of continuing coronavirus restrictions in Britain.
Philip’s dedication to his duty earned him widespread popularity in Britain, but he was also criticised by some for a number of off-the-cuff racist or abrupt comments which shocked princes, priests and presidents.
“He was authentically himself, with a seriously sharp wit,
and could hold the attention of any room due to his charm and also because you never knew what he might say next,” Harry said of his grandfather.
Philip was a decorated Royal Navy veteran of World War Two and his funeral, much of which was planned in meticulous detail by the prince himself, will have a strong military feel, with personnel from across the armed forces playing prominent roles.
Julianna Balázs and Lili Törőcsik from Budapest have won one of the most prestigious international debate competition in Oxford. The Hungarian talents defeated representatives of 300 high schools worldwide, including famous debate teams of British high schools.
Oxford Schools debate competitions are usually attended by 14-18-year-old students, representing more than 300 high schools worldwide. The competition follows the rules of the British parliamentary debate style, which determines not only the length of speeches and the number of debaters, but also sets who and when can ask questions to parties arguing for or against a given statement. The judges make the final decision at the end of the debate.
As Eduline reports, the final is traditionally held in the Oxford Union’s debate room, founded in 1823 by one of the world’s oldest debate companies. The legendary events were attended by famous politicians, artists, and athletes, including several American presidents, such as Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, the Dalai Lama, and Mother Teresa.
This year, due to the pandemic, the global debate competition was held online. However, this did not affect the success of the Hungarian team. The renowned Harrow School – famous for having participated in various British and international debate competitions – was one of the British schools whose team was defeated by two Hungarian high school students in March.
Julianna Balázs and Lili Törőcsik from Budapest have won the international final of the 2021 Oxford Schools, one of the most famous debate competitions in the world.
Photo: Julianna Balázs and Lili Törőcsik (www.facebook.com/karinthy)
The winners are both students of the Milestone Institute, offering talent management programs. Julianna studies mathematics in Karinthy Frigyes Secondary School in Budapest, Lili Törőcsik studies science in Mihály Fazekas Secondary School.
The result is also remarkable because so far, no Hungarian student has achieved such a prestigious acknowledgement in an international debate competition. The competitors had to discuss public, social and cultural topics in English with English-speaking students.
The Hungarian winners prepared for the competition online; they practised comparative analysis, argumentation, public speaking, and contextualising random topics.
According to their coach, András Balázsy, “Debate is almost a national sport in Singapore, China takes it very seriously, as does Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several European countries, such as Slovenia or the Netherlands.”
Even though the education of public debates is not typical in Hungary, this did not affect the outstanding performance of the Hungarian ladies.
At the Oxford competition, the topics are not known in advance. They are usually topics of debate that have a foreign policy implication, but there are also social injustice issues or popular culture. The Hungarian team’s final discussion was whether mass tourism is detrimental to developing countries or whether education should focus on the knowledge necessary for everyday life instead of academic content.
It is not surprising if we reveal that this knowledge cannot be acquired in school. Their most important tool of success was reading international journals and following the most important world news. Congratulations Ladies! ?? ?
Greece plans to lift quarantine restrictions from next week for travelers from the European Union and five other countries who have been vaccinated or test negative for COVID-19, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
Last month, the country lifted a one-week quarantine rule for Israeli travellers who have been inoculated and test negative.
Greece, which emerged from a decade-long financial crisis before the pandemic last year, has said it will open its tourism sector,
a key growth driver for its economy,
from the middle of May.
“We will gradually lift the restrictions at the beginning of next week ahead of the opening on May 14,” a senior tourism ministry official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The official said citizens from the European Union, the United States, Britain, Serbia, Israel and the United Arab Emirates will be allowed to travel to Greece via the airports of Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Chania, Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos, Santorini and Corfu, and two border crossings.
Passengers from those countries will not be quarantined, as long as they prove that they have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine or show a negative PCR test carried out 72 hours prior to their arrival, the official said, adding the tourists would be subject to domestic lockdown restrictions.
Under current rules, all foreigners arriving in Greece should test negative and quarantine for seven days.
For passengers from Britain and the United Arab Emirates, a second mandatory test is also required upon their arrival.
Greece has fared better than other EU countries in containing the first wave of the pandemic but a resurgence in COVID-19 infections has forced the country to impose lockdown restrictions since November.
Greece has reported a total of 301,103 cases and 9,054 deaths so far.
The whole World has met with a threat never seen before, and it forced almost all of us to stay in our homes for more than an entire year now. People could not really travel abroad, and this may affect the number of people willing to travel, but also their budget on where to travel.
According to Vg, this is where Hungary might come into the picture. Although the situation is not bright at all, according to Hungarian Inbound Professionals’ Association (Mabeusz) member
travel agencies have been hoping to achieve the movement of 50,000 tourists who would have brought approximately HUF 1.8 billion (€ 5 million), but since this expected number, only 35,000 remained which barely hit the HUF 1 billion (€ 2.78 million) mark,
but nothing guarantees that it will not decrease further. As a base for comparison, the same group of agencies have arranged the travel of 260,000 tourists to Hungary, who have approximately spent around HUF 16 billion (€ 44.4 million) in 2019, one year before the coronavirus pandemic.
There are several problems to combat for these agencies but they are still hoping for a good summer season. One of the problems is that many major events, such as Balaton Sound and Telekom VOLT festival, not to mention other regional and cultural events have been postponed to 2022, some to 2023, and there are events scheduled only by 2024 with some even having been cancelled altogether.
If the tourism would get a green light, the Hungarian Inbound Professionals’ Association (Mabeusz) expects visitors mainly from the European Union, but there is some demand for travelling to Hungary from the British and Scandinavian markets.
With only a scarce number of visitors from overseas countries as the future of long-distance travel via aeroplanes is still uncertain due to the pandemic restrictions.
Until the travel agencies do not know exactly what the conditions to travel to Hungary or to Europe in general will be,
they cannot advertise any travels or programmes and if or when they do get this information, there will be a huge competition for tourists. Some countries like Greece, Croatia, Malta and Thailand have already started to communicate their conditions towards those who would like to spend their vacation there, but Hungary has not done so yet. Also, it would probably be in line with the conditions of other countries of the European Union, which have also not crystallised yet.
Another possible issue that could hinder tourism is that there are rumours that some foreign travel agencies that have been in contact with Hungarian ones and helped to get more tourists for Hungary have gone bankrupt due to the pandemic. The Hungarian agencies are not untouched either.
Some necessary people who spoke many languages have either went away looking for a job to sustain themselves, or the agencies had to cut some people due to the hardships. This accounts for almost 40% of the employees according to the estimations of Judit Lázár, the head of the Hungarian Inbound Professionals’ Association (Mabeusz).
According to a survey, about 71.7% of Hungarians are planning to travel somewhere. The most bellowed destinations seem to be Lake Balaton and the capital, Budapest. Everguest and Tárki have asked Hungarians who have been on more than a single night long vacation in the past two years. According to those who have made the survey, Hungarians will have a higher travel spirit after the restrictions and would even consider spending more.
10.7 % of people would travel abroad if the pandemic would tame and 40.2 % would travel domestically and 20.8 % would travel to both domestic and foreign locations.
It seems that the percentage of people who do not want to travel is also quite high; 18.4 % are certain will not travel and 9.8% think are undecided on the matter.
British airline easyJet said it expected to start to fly more from late May onwards, shrugging off worries about a third wave of COVID-19 infections in continental Europe which have dampened hopes for a rebound in travel this summer.
EasyJet said on Wednesday that most countries were planning to resume flying at scale in May, and it expected a ramp up from late May. It said that overall in its April to end of June quarter it would fly up to 20% of 2019 capacity levels.
The return to flying at scale will help boost the airline’s finances which have been squeezed during the pandemic.
It flew just 14% of 2019 capacity in the October to end of March period.
For the six months ended in March, the airline said it expected to report a loss before tax in the range of 690 million pounds ($950.41 million) to 730 million pounds, after it made stronger cost reductions than analysts had forecasted.
EasyJet said it has 2.9 billion pounds of liquidity and was well-positioned to capitalise on a recovery in flying. “We maintain significant flexibility to ramp capacity up or down quickly depending upon the unwinding of travel restrictions and expected demand across our European network,” said easyJet in its statement.
Uncertainty remains about when travel can properly resume. The UK government’s plan for kicking off a summer getaway season disappointed the industry last week after it failed to include a start date for travel or list which countries which would be open for travel.
Crowds queued up outside shops, pubs started selling pints at midnight and hairdressers welcomed desperate customers on Monday as England started to reopen its economy after three months of lockdown.
After imposing the most onerous restrictions in Britain’s peacetime history, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the reopening was a “major step” towards freedom but urged people to behave responsibly as the coronavirus was still a threat.
Johnson, whose unruly hair style has become a trademark look, was one of thousands who flocked to hairdressers and barbers to have a hair cut on Monday, having waited since early January when the latest lockdown was introduced.
Some folk lined up at bars after midnight or in the morning to raise a pint with fellow revellers.
“It feels good to be back,” Matthew McGuinness, a 21-year-old student told Reuters in the large garden of Wetherspoon’s Fox on the Hill pub in south London. “We planned it last night to come here for a breakfast, get a drink.”
“I would not want to be working behind the bar here tonight. It’s gonna be ridiculous,” he said.
Later on Monday, at the busy Skylight rooftop bar in central London, drinker Matt Culhan said he had travelled almost 70 miles (113 km) from Ipswich in eastern England to enjoy the atmosphere.
“It’s a bit more of a vibe down here,” he said. “It’s been absolutely amazing. Everyone’s having a great time,” he said.
Getting people spending again is crucial for Britain’s recovery after official data showed that 2020 was the worst year for its economy in more than three centuries with a 9.8% decline in gross domestic product.
Johnson wants to hand back people their freedoms, but after being criticised for moving too slowly last year and then for unwinding restrictions too quickly, he has adopted a cautious easing of the latest lockdown.
With more than 127,000 fatalities, the United Kingdom has the fifth-highest death toll in the world from COVID-19.
As the sun rose, dozens of people queued up outside Primark in English cities such as Birmingham and outside JD Sports on Oxford Street in London, undeterred by the unseasonably cold weather.
The John Lewis department store chain said glassware and gifts had been the most popular items as shoppers prepared to host friends and families once again. In the run up to the reopening, John Lewis had also seen a more than 200% jump in sales of dresses.
At the Thorpe Park adventure site near London, visitors ran to the rides as it reopened. Drinkers in pub gardens said they had worn their thermals to be able withstand the cold.
In north London, Maggie Grieve reopened the Beaucatcher hairdresser salon to work through the long list of bookings.
“I’m so excited to see my clients: to see how they are and give them that feeling that they get from having had their hair done,” Maggie Grieve, who manages Beaucatcher hairdressers in north London, told Reuters.
“Today is going to feel like every hairdresser’s birthday. The well-wishers have already come in: emails, texts, WhatsApps, even neighbours in the street wishing luck and joy. It feels great. Now can’t wait to get to the pub,” Grieve said.
Hundreds of thousands of businesses have been closed since early January when England entered a third lockdown to stem surging infections driven by the “Kent” variant of the virus. The UK has the fifth highest death toll in the world.
But a fast vaccination campaign that has delivered a first shot to well over half of adults has helped to cut deaths by more than 95% and cases by over 90% from the January peak, paving the way for a staggered reopening.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are reopening at a different pace, determined by their governments.
Non-essential stores, such as home and fashion chains, will reopen in Wales as well as England on Monday, although those in Scotland need to wait until April 26.
Pubs and restaurants will only be able to serve outdoors from Monday, with indoor service not allowed until May 17 at the earliest.
The world was shaken by the news that Prince Philip died yesterday, at the age of 99. Mourning began in Britain and around the world. Flowers were placed at the entrance of Buckingham Palace.
As we reported before, Prince Philip, who spent seven decades on Queen Elizabeth’s side, passed away on Friday. In honour of his memory and work, politicians and stars remember the prince. Few know, but Prince Philip had visited Hungary several times.
In 1973, Philip visited the Hungarian State Farm in Bábolna and Dióspuszta. In these places, the prince even attended horse shows. In 1984, he was a guest at the Szilvásvárad four-wheel-drive world championship.
The greatest influence on Prince Philip was his visit to Kecskemét in 1978.
He returned here later, in May 1993, with Queen Elizabeth. In 1993, in addition to Kecskemét, the couple also visited Bugac and the capital of Hungary, Budapest. The royal couple rolled in front of the parliament in a Rolls-Royce on 4 May. Prince Philip was known for his humour, which he also showed in Budapest. He told a British tourist in Budapest: “You haven’t been here in a long time, you don’t have a beer belly.”
In Budapest, in addition to the Parliament, they also visited the National Széchényi Library. Here, they visited an exhibition, made in their honour. In the first half of the exhibition, there was a 16th-century book, in which there were also details of Oxford and Windsor Castle, while the second half was about Queen Elizabeth’s Hungarian relatives. After the exhibition, more than 100 journalists were waiting in the hall of the library. The half-hour conversation ended at 4 p.m. with maximum punctuality, characteristic of the royal family.
Two days later, the couple was greeted by thousands of people cheering in Kecskemét.
1,000 Hungarian and 1,000 British flags awaited Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The mayor of Kecskemét also handed over the symbolic city key of Kecskemét to the Queen. Queen Elizabeth wrote in the city’s book of honour: “On the occasion of the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Prince of Edinburgh, to the city of Kecskemét on May 6, 1993.”
The couple’s visit to Hungary required huge preparations. Among other things, the work of nearly 400 police officers and the on-call duty of two hospitals also contributed to the couple’s successful visit to Hungary, writes Blikk.hu. President of the Republic of Hungary János Áder sent a condolence letter to Queen Elizabeth.
“Your Majesty, I am very saddened to learn that His Royal Highness The Prince of Edinburgh passed away in the centenary of his life. Allow me to express to Your Majesty the sincere condolences of the Hungarian people,” wrote Áder.
Hungarian President János Áder on Friday sent a telegram to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, expressing his condolences over the passing of her husband, Prince Philip.
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen’s husband of 73 years, died at the age of 99 in the royal family’s Windsor residence on Friday.
Áder said he was “greatly saddened” to hear of his passing, and expressed the Hungarian people’s sympathies to the queen. “Our hearts go out to the royal family and the entire country in this painful hour,” Ader said.
In Philip,
“we lost a great friend of Hungary”,
who did much to deepen Hungarian-British relations as a public figure and as a sportsman, Áder said. “His memory will stay with us,” he added.
Gun salutes will be fired across Britain on Saturday to mark the passing of Prince Philip as tributes flooded in for a man who was a pillar of strength for Queen Elizabeth during her 69-year reign. Flowers were piled high outside royal residences as sombre mourners paid their respects to the
99-year-old prince who had spent more than seven decades at the heart of the British monarchy.
“We’re all weeping with you, Ma’am,” read the front page of the Sun tabloid, while its rival the Daily Mail ran a 144-page tribute to Philip, who died on Friday at Windsor Castle.
Buckingham Palace is expected to announce details of Philip’s funeral later on Saturday, although it is likely to be a small, private affair, stripped of the grandeur of traditional royal occasions by COVID-19 restrictions and the prince’s own dislike of people making a fuss. Despite a request from the royal family for the public to obey pandemic social distancing rules and avoid visits to its residences, people laid cards and bouquets outside Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace through the night.
“What a life! Thank you for serving our country,”
read one tribute outside Buckingham Palace. The queen had announced the death of “her beloved husband” with deep sorrow. Messages of condolence have poured in from world leaders to the Duke of Edinburgh, as Philip was officially known, who was credited with helping to modernise the ancient institution and help his wife deal with repeated crises during their 73-year marriage.
Flags at Buckingham Palace and at government buildings across Britain were lowered to half-mast. The BBC cancelled programming across all of its television and radio channels through Friday and aired a special tribute comprising interviews with the queen and Philip’s children, including heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles.
Philip “probably wanted to be remembered as an individual in his own right”,
said Charles, who went to see the queen on Friday afternoon, hours after his father’s death.
“He didn’t suffer fools gladly, so if you said anything that was in any way ambiguous, he would say: ‘Make up your mind!’ Perhaps it made one choose one’s words carefully,” Charles said.
Britain’s armed forces will mark Philip’s death at noon (1100 GMT) with
a Death Gun Salute.
Artillery units in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and Gibraltar, and some navy warships, will fire their guns.
Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband and a pivotal figure in the British royal family for almost seven decades, has died aged 99, Buckingham Palace said on Friday.
The Duke of Edinburgh, as he was officially known, had been by his wife’s side throughout her 69-year reign, the longest in British history. During that time he earned a reputation for a tough, no-nonsense attitude and a propensity for occasional gaffes.
“It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,” the palace said in a statement.
“His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will be made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss.”
A Greek prince, Philip married Elizabeth in 1947. He went on to play a key role in modernising the monarchy in the post-World War Two period, and behind the walls of Buckingham Palace was the one key figure the queen could turn to and trust.
Photo: www.facebook.com/The Royal Family
“He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,” Elizabeth said in a rare personal tribute to Philip, made in a speech marking their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997.
“I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.”
Philip spent four weeks in hospital earlier this year for treatment for an infection and to have a heart procedure, but returned to Windsor in early March. He died just two months before he was to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Flags at Buckingham Palace and at government buildings across Britain were lowered to half-mast. No details about his funeral were disclosed yet, but ceremonies are likely to eschew the grand displays of pomp that often follow royal deaths.
That would reflect Philip’s well-known aversion to drama, and it is unlikely there will be a state funeral or that his body will lie in state.
The prince’s charm and disinclination to tolerate those he regarded as foolish or sycophantic earned him a position of respect among some Britons. But to others, his sometimes brusque demeanor made him appear rude and aloof. He was a delight to newspaper editors keen to pick up on any stray remark at official events.
The former naval officer admitted he found it hard to give up the military career he loved and to take on the job as the monarch’s consort, for which there was no clear-cut constitutional role.
“Like the expert carriage driver that he was, he helped to steer the royal family and the monarchy so that it remains an institution indisputably vital to the balance and happiness of our national life,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
HEAD OF THE FAMILY
In private, the prince was regarded as the unquestioned head of his family, but protocol obliged the man dubbed “the second handshake” to spend his public life literally one step behind his wife.
“There was no precedent. If I asked somebody ‘what do you expect me to do?’, they all looked blank – they had no idea, nobody had much idea,” he said in an interview to mark his 90th birthday.
After completing more than 22,000 solo appearances, Philip retired from public life in August 2017, although after that he occasionally appeared at official engagements.
His last appearance was last July at a military ceremony at Windsor Castle, the royal palace west of London where he and the monarch have resided during COVID-19 lockdowns.
“On the occasions when I met him, I was always struck by his obvious joy at life, his enquiring mind and his ability to communicate to people from every background and walk of life,” Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said.
“He was a master at putting people at their ease and making them feel special.”
QUEEN WITHOUT PHILIP
The queen, who is 94, came to the throne in 1952 and the couple, who were third cousins, married at Westminster Abbey on Nov. 20, 1947.
They had four children, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, Princess Anne, and Princes Andrew and Edward.
They celebrated their 72nd anniversary on the same day that Andrew stepped down from public duties over the controversy surrounding his association with the disgraced late U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein, one of a number of recent crises the family have faced.
The death of the queen’s husband and closest confidant will raise questions over whether she might consider abdication, but royal commentators say there is little or no chance than this will happen.
In recent years, the queen has cut the number of official engagements she carries out and has passed many royal duties and patronages onto Prince Charles, his son William and other senior royals. But she still carries out the most symbolic of the monarchy’s state duties, such as the opening of parliament.
While he officially played second fiddle to his wife, Prince Philip regarded as the private head of the family.
Some royal watchers have said that his absence from this role in recent years with declining health has played a role in some of the monarchy’s recent travails, such as the crisis of Charles’ younger son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, and the decision that saw them give up their royal roles.
“The main lesson that we have learned is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient of any happy marriage,” Philip said in a speech in 1997.
“It may not be quite so important when things are going well, but it is absolutely vital when things get difficult. You can take it from me that the queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.”
Airlines slammed Britain’s plans for restarting international travel, saying that expensive testing requirements for trips to low-risk countries would mean that only wealthy people could take holidays abroad.
Under government proposals, airlines and passengers will not find out until early May whether international travel resumes from May 17, a plan which fell short of industry hopes for clarity.
Airlines and travel companies are desperate for a bumper summer after a year of restrictions. Without a high level of unrestricted travel, some could be left struggling to survive or needing fresh funds.
The government has proposed a traffic light system, with countries falling into red, amber or green categories based on COVID-19 risks. Green countries will require a PCR test which costs about 100 pounds ($135) for travellers once they arrive back in the UK.
“This does not represent a reopening of travel as promised by ministers,” said Airlines UK, an industry body which represents British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic and others.
“It is a further setback for an industry on its knees.”
EasyJet, Britain’s biggest airline by passenger numbers, singled out the PCR testing requirement, the cost of which it says is higher than some of its fares, and called on the government to re-assess its plan.
“This risks reversing the clock and making flying only for the wealthy,” said easyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren.
Britons have embraced the era of low cost travel over the last 20 years and are among Europe’s highest spending tourists. In 2019, more than six in ten Britons took a foreign holiday.
Transport Minister Grant Shapps said that the government wanted to make testing for travel cheaper and suggested that in time, the PCR test could be changed for a more affordable lateral flow test.
“We are committed as a government to work to drive those costs down, and also in time of course review potentially the type of test,” he told the BBC.
The framework for travel will be reviewed at the end of June, July and again in October, the government has said.
“I’m not telling people that they shouldn’t book some holidays now,” Shapps said. “It’s the first time I’ve been able to say that for many months.”
Case numbers in Britain have dropped dramatically since a January peak under a strict lockdown which has banned holidays, but a government priority is to avoid undermining the success of its vaccination programme by importing vaccine-resistant variants from overseas.
Under the traffic light system, restrictions such as hotel quarantine, home quarantine and compulsory COVID tests will apply differently depending on which category of country a passenger arrives from.
There will be a “green watchlist” identifying countries most at risk of moving from green to amber, although the government said it would not hesitate to change a country’s category should data show risk had increased.
A digital travel certification system would also be part of the plan but the proposals gave few details beyond saying that Britain wanted to play a leading role in developing standards.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it had found a possible link between AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine and reports of very rare cases of blood clots in people who had received the shot.
Safety concerns have prompted more than a dozen countries in recent weeks to suspend use of the vaccine, which has been given to tens of millions of people in Europe, after reports linking it to a brain blood clotting disorder in a few dozen recipients.
The EMA announcement is a fresh setback for the vaccine, which is sold at cost, for a few dollars a dose, and is by far the cheapest and most high-volume launched so far.
After extensive use in Britain and mainland Europe, it is set to be the mainstay of vaccination programmes in much of the developing world.
Experts say that, even if a causal link between the vaccine and blood clots is proved, the risks to the general population of getting a serious clot are vanishingly small compared to the risks from possible COVID-19 infection, which can also cause similar clots, or from many other widely used drugs such as the birth control pill.
Both the EMA and the World Health Organization have said the benefits outweigh the risks of the vaccine.
Britain should not give Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to under 30s where possible, Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said on Wednesday, due to a very rare side effect of blood clots in the brain.
Wei Shen Lim, COVID-19 Chair for JCVI, said that based on the available data and evidence, the committee has advised that it is preferable for adults aged under 30 with no underlying conditions to be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine where available.
He said that
for younger people, where the risks of hospitalisation were much lower, the risk/benefit calculation of the Oxford/AstraZeneca shot meant others vaccines were preferable.
“We are not advising a stop to any vaccination for any individual in any age group. We are advising a preference for one vaccine over another vaccine for a particular age group, really out of the utmost caution, rather than because we have any serious safety concerns,” Lim said at a briefing.
He said people should continue to have a second dose of the AstraZeneca shot if they had received a first dose. It came after Britain’s MHRA medicine regulator identified a possible side-effect from the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca involving rare brain blood clotting.
Chief executive June Raine said that
the benefits of the shot outweighed the risks for the vast majority,
echoing an update from Europe’s medicine regulator also made on Wednesday.
Europe’s and Britain’s medicine regulators have both previously said that there is no increased risk of blood clots in general from the shot developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca. However, both have been investigating small numbers of reports of a brain blood clots,
known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST),
that have occurred in combination with unusually low blood platelet levels after people have been given the shot.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam said the move would have only a negligible impact on the pace of Britain’s vaccine rollout. The rollout of Moderna’s shot began on Wednesday, while Britain is also deploying Pfizer’s vaccine.
Hungary will wait for the European drug regulator to issue an official opinion on AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 jab
before deciding on how to proceed with the use of the vaccine, the chief medical officer told an online briefing on Wednesday. Cecília Müller noted that several countries have either suspended the use of the British-Swedish drugmaker’s vaccine or are limiting its use to certain age groups after reports of some of its recipients experiencing rare blood clots. She also noted that on Tuesday a senior official for the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said there was a clear link between the vaccine and rare blood clots in the brain, although its causes were unknown.
“The EMA, however, has not issued an official opinion on the matter,” Müller said.
“If one is issued today or tomorrow, the Hungarian authorities will take it into consideration and use it as a guideline when deciding how to proceed with the AstraZeneca jab.”
The chief medical officer also thanked Hungary’s health-care professionals for their service on the occasion of World Health Day.
The epidemic curve of the UK and Hungary follows a similar path, with an average delay of 8 weeks. Thanks to this, on the basis of the British epidemic situation, it can be concluded when all the restrictions will be lifted in Hungary.
During the second wave of the pandemic, Hungary could forecast the next 10-14 days based on the pandemic situation in Austria. However, this is no longer relevant. As a result of the intensity of the third wave – that seems to have its peak soon – and the rapid vaccination program in Hungary, the epidemic situation of the country is now most comparable to that of Great Britain.
In the island country, the vaccination program of the population is progressing at a similar rate as in Hungary, and in the last wave of the pandemic, the British variant, which, according to experts, is the main reason for the rapid spread of the coronavirus in Hungary, has already played a significant role. Therefore, it is worth comparing the numbers there and in Hungary.
As Hungarian news portal Magyar Nemzet reports, the UK epidemic curve began to rise on 1st December 2020 and peaked in mid-January. Since then, there has been a steady decline in the number of new infections registered. With a 10-week discrepancy, a similar trend can be observed in Hungary where the number of new infections started to increase at the beginning of February and had its peak on 29th March.
Accordingly, the path of the Hungarian curve shows the decline of the British wave with a ten-week (70-day) delay.
Due to supply problems, the vaccination of the Hungarian population could not go as planned. However, from 28th February, the use of the Russian and Chinese vaccines accelerated the pace, and the increase in the vaccination rate was almost the same as in the UK. Then, Hungary was only 42 days behind the island nation. In mid-March, the pace of vaccination slowed slightly, increasing the time lag to 46 days.
The positive news is that the vaccination program in Hungary is more effective than in the UK. For instance, the second dose is administered much earlier than in the UK for most of the vaccines. Therefore, despite the time lag, Hungary performs better than the island nation in terms of the second vaccine dose.
Based on the two indicators – the pace of the vaccination and the number of new cases – from the epidemic curve of Great Britain, we can conclude how the third wave will develop in Hungary and when we can expect the opening. One shows a time lag of six and the other a time lag of ten weeks of delay in Hungary. Averaging the two, we can assume that the steps of the British opening program can be implemented in Hungary with an eight-week time lag.
The British government takes a five-week break between each opening phase, during which data is collected for four weeks, and in the final week, based on an analysis of this data, a decision is made as to the next opening phase.
Great Britain is planning a full reopening by 21st June, on the basis of which all restrictions could be lifted in Hungary on 16th August.
The island nation plans to open its shops and allow domestic holidays earlier, in mid-April. Taking into account the eight-week discrepancy, this could be introduced in Hungary in June-July.
As we all know, unfortunately, these predictions cannot be taken for granted as the third wave of the pandemic can bring unexpected twists. However, they give some hope that the recently extended restrictions will indeed end once and Hungary can safely reopen.
