Index – Hungary – Attila Péterfalvi: Fever can be measured, not registered



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As of October 1, temperature measurement will be mandatory in schools, and the body temperature of students and teachers will be monitored at the time of admission, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently announced. However, it has been heard in countless schools that the practice was introduced in the past to try to detect potential coronavirus infections.

Viktor Orbán: As of October 1, fever measurement will be mandatory in schools

So far, three schools and sixteen kindergartens have had to be closed because of the coronavirus.

In the spring, during the first wave of the epidemic, the National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (NAIH) issued a resolution on mandatory fever measurements, in which it was not considered proportionate to force employers to submit to its employees in a general and comprehensive manner. themselves for various diagnostic screening tests, including fever measurement.

We contacted Attila Péterfalvi, president of NAIH, to see if the opinion of the authority on the matter had changed since then and what he thought about the school fever measures.

Zoltán Maruzsa: Fever measurement is also mandatory for teachers

According to Zoltán Maruzsa, there is no unfulfilled task in Hungarian public education.

Péterfalvi said that in such cases the question of proportionality is always the decisive one, although the comprehensive measurement of fever was considered unreasonable at the time, but this can no longer be said in the current epidemic situation, the spread of the virus now justifies it. .

However, the president of the NAIH also made it clear that temperature measurement should not be accompanied by data recording, as it is considered sensitive information.

The purpose of a fever test can only be to prevent entry by people who are suspected of being infected. However, it is neither necessary nor possible to record the data generated during the body temperature measurement. If someone has a fever, see a doctor for a test.

(Cover image: The temperature of a student wearing a protective mask is measured before the written graduation exam in the courtyard of an elementary school in the capital on May 6, 2020. Photo: Zoltán Balogh / MTI)



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