Coronavirus – Orbán: Hungary ‘in full armour’ before 2nd wave

Hungary is “awaiting the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic in full armour”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in his weekly interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio on Friday morning.

Orbán noted the government’s experiences gained during the first wave of the pandemic, adding that some 1.7-1.8 million people had returned the government’s “National Consultation” questionnaires concerning preventive measures. “The success of prevention now depends on whether residents support the measures,” he said, but added that the large number of respondents in the survey “lends great strength to the country and to the government”.

According to the prime minister, the government must now focus on saving lives, with special regard to the elderly, ensuring the necessary conditions for schools and boosting the economy. Concerning the latter, he said that “if we need to halt the economy again, it will create a very difficult situation for us all”.

In his interview, Orbán called on young people to observe preventive measures because “the lives of parents and grandparents are primarily in their hands”.

Orbán made a special mention of Sándor Pintér, the interior minister, and Miklós Kásler, the human resources minister, whom he said had worked on preparations for the second wave all the summer.

Hungary’s health care system “completed an exercise in spring” and “we now know exactly what we should do in a worst case scenario”, Orbán said and suggested that the country has a sufficient number of ventilators, but added that delays could be expected in the production of domestically produced equipment. Concerning testing, he said that Hungary has used the World Health Organisation’s protocol and would continue to follow international standards.

Orbán said that “Hungary has had the most successful prevention in Europe” and warned that possible changes should not result in a worse situation than before. The Hungarian government “measures success in the number of lives” and “we won the first battle”, the prime minister said. Sweden, a country with a population similar in size, lost ten times as many patients as Hungary, he argued.

On the subject of the European Union’s warning Hungary against “discriminating” some countries in its recent travel restrictions, Orbán said that “bureaucrats in Brussels must understand that V4 countries have developed a deep cooperation concerning the epidemic”, adding that “Hungary is rather safe due to preventive measures in the other three Visegrad countries”.