BREAKING! Coronavirus restrictions to stay in place in Hungary until February 1

The government will keep coronavirus-related restrictions in place until February 1, and secondary schools will continue digital education, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday.

In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio, Orbán said the restrictions will be maintained until enough vaccines are at hand.

The vaccines are safe and necessary, Orbán said, adding that he will be inoculated “when it is my turn”.

Regarding the economic crisis, Orbán said he wanted to “do more than just avert the crisis: I want 2021 to be an outstanding year for Hungarians.”

The first few months “will be rocky,” Orbán said, but the economy should “hit the ground running” afterwards, he said.

So far, 42,549 health-care workers have received their first jab, Orbán said, adding that “initial objections seem to have subsided”. Inoculation is ongoing in elderly care homes, and will start in all facilities with more than 150 residents over the weekend, he said. Currently, 80 percent of all residents and 50 percent of employees have registered for vaccination, he said.

Unlike in the West, the Hungarian government is unwilling to change the regulations until there are enough doses at hand, he said.

Orbán said that the difference between the mortality rate in 2019 and 2020 — “with small corrections” — corresponded to the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Hungary. In international comparison, that number puts Hungary ahead of states such as Belgium, Italy, Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden and France, he said. “Although I would be wary of using the word ‘success’ in this context,” he said.

“Victory”, the vaccine, is at arm’s length, Orbán said. Rather than just waiting for it, Hungary is in talks with Israel, China and Russia as well as western suppliers, he said.

In the EU “we are waiting for the vaccine to arrive”, which is “frustrating”, he said.

Hungary had contracted 8.5 million doses of the vaccine, he said.

Orbán congratulated the United Kingdom, which negotiated vaccine procurement on its own after leaving the EU on January 1. “They are now in much better shape than we are, with our protection efforts going through Brussels.”

Orbán said he expected this to circle back to the question of only transferring powers to Brussels that it can be guaranteed to exercise more effectively than member states. Member states should have control over significantly more areas than they currently do, Orbán said, adding that Brussels should give a portion of its powers back to nation states.

Concerning Hungary’s unemployment rate, Orbán said that the country had lost just 26,000 jobs to the crisis. “There are few such countries in the world, not to mention that we will regain these jobs as well,” the prime minister said, adding that the economy would eventually add even more jobs.