COVID-19: Hungary's Operational Corps reveals details about new movement restriction
*Note that journalists may still not ask questions during the event. All questions must be e-mailed to the Operational Corps in advance and officials hand-pick the ones they answer. There is no way of knowing how many questions are submitted and what the ones ignored are aimed at.*
Highlights of the online press briefing.
The health care system needs to be prepared over the next two to three weeks that there will be thousands of people who will need to be hospitalised due to COVID-19 infections, said Miklós Kásler, Minister of Human Capacities said. He reiterated that allocations to this end are endless.
The important thing right now is to avoid gatherings, he stressed, particularly for the elderly population. Staying home is the best way of containing the spread and protecting yoursef, he added.
More than 5,000 people have been confined to home quarantine so far. Their compliance have been checked on 39,000 occasions and 163 citations for infraction have been issued. In 44 cases, citations for infraction have been issued against stores that did not comply with the new rules on (shorter) opening hours.
The elderly population is requested to go out only when it is absolutely necessary, i.e. to the grocery store, but only in the window they have just been given, said Cecília Müller, Hungary's Medical Chief Officer. She also asked them to spend as little time outside their home (e.g. shopping) as possible.
As of tomorrow, those older than 65 years of age will be permitted to visit grocery stores, drugstores and pharmacies only between 9 and 12 A.M., during which period younger people will be denied entry.
Dogs may be taken to walks, but the time spent outdoors must be the shortest possible, and pets should not be walked in groups, she added.
When asked how much oxygen is available in the country, officials said companies dealing with oxygen supply received military assistance.
Testing is done in laboratories in the Szent László and Centrum hospitals, four universities and at the National Public Heath Centre (NNK) in Budapest, as well as in Győr, said Müller.
