Index – National: Government may propose reopening schedule on Thursday

• There is no reversal in the number of daily infections.
• Maintain austerity, relaxation, regional measures: what will the government announce on Thursday?
• Gergely Gulyás can publish a reopening schedule.

On March 4, Gergely Gulyás, the prime minister, announced in government information that stores would be closed and some services would be suspended from March 8 to 22 due to the coronavirus epidemic, and that kindergartens and primary schools they would also be closed until April 7. . The decree on these was published in the Hungarian Gazette not long after, but it was published only in stages, not at the same time. To clarify the picture a bit, the Index has compiled exactly what the measures cover, in a simpler way: where we cannot go, what we cannot do during tightening.

Since Hungary, and even Europe, has a good vaccination record in terms of population vaccinations and the number of daily vaccinations, the number of vaccinated reached 1,397,342 on March 17, but it is also a fact that 195 People died from complications of the coronavirus in one day, which is undoubtedly a tragic figure – the peak so far has been the 193 deaths in the figures released on December 5. This predicts that there will be no relaxation here, especially during the Easter holidays, when many people “move in” for family visits. The last time the curfew was lifted on Christmas Eve was the effect it had on the epidemic curve, it is worth following in this article, day by day.

According to our information, no decision was made at the government meeting on Wednesday to tighten the current restrictions. This is confirmed by the Facebook post of Minister Gergely Gulyás, who presided over the Prime Minister’s Office, on Wednesday night, in which he firmly refuted the news from our newspaper that the government was planning different disease control measures for each county. He put it this way, “the statement has no basis in reality.”

There is consensus among politicians and professionals that the current epidemic situation is worrying. According to our source, just look at the statement posted on the website of the National Center for Public Health. (The amount of coronavirus measured in wastewater exceeded the fall 2020 average concentration.) “The situation is closer than in the fall,” he stressed, also confirming the Index rumor today that the operating tribe might consider making a proposal to avoid the big Easter moves.

It is also a viable scenario that there will be no more restrictions, which will be gradually relaxed after Easter in accordance with the original plans and depending on the result of the national consultation. The consultation will close on Thursday and, as we have learned, a reopening schedule in this regard will be made public, which Gergely Gulyás may announce in government information. Origo said the government could also decide on the protection card on Wednesday, but the vaccine passport is not an issue now.

We do not know more about the reopening schedule at the moment, but it can be assumed that the focus is mainly on the period when vaccination is higher and the virus is decreasing, it will not be of great importance in the current situation.

As is well known, in the opening consultation, the government wondered how people envisioned a “reorganization” after a coronavirus epidemic, opening everything step by step or at once. By the way, it is worth looking at the opinion poll conducted by the Research Center on behalf of the Index, about which we can say from the beginning that most people are cautious without “drawing important conclusions”.

The number of daily infections is also a reason for this, as not only are increasingly young people hospitalized at home, but the number of deaths is constantly above 100, approaching 200 in some days, more than 500 thousand of infections identified and well above 17 thousand due to the number of deaths from coronavirus.

This is a critical period, as Cecília Müller said in Wednesday’s briefing for operational staff. The National Medical Director said there were concerns that the British mutant was much more contagious than the so-called wild-type virus, could cause more serious illness and hospitals were under extreme strain.

(Cover image: Government Spokesperson Alexandra Szentkirály and Gergely Gulyás, Minister to the Prime Minister, will be present at Government Info in the press room of the Prime Minister’s Office on October 8, 2020. Photo: Tamás Kovács / MTI)