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Hungary will start to gradually ease coronavirus restrictions in a few days, the government said on Monday (April 5), as it expects 25% of its population of 10 million to be vaccinated by or sooner Tuesday. Wednesday at the latest.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who faces an election a year from now, walks a tightrope between a lockdown to tame the world’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak and the need to reopen the economy to avoid a second year of deep recession.
The central European country reported record coronavirus deaths last week and medics described hospitals filling up beyond capacity, signaling the government could be forced to postpone a reopening.
Hungary has recorded the highest weekly per capita deaths in the world for several weeks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Its healthcare system has been under extreme stress, the government said, despite vaccinating a fifth of the population in one of Europe’s fastest vaccination campaigns.
There were nearly 12,000 coronavirus patients in hospital on Sunday, including 1,451 on ventilators, the government said on Monday.
But the government also vaccinated the highest number of citizens per capita in the European Union and imported the highest number of vaccine doses per capita from the EU, which contributed to a rapid inoculation campaign.
Its Monday statement said that once the 25% mark is cleared, it will shorten the nighttime curfew to start at 10 p.m. instead of 8 a.m., and allow all stores to be open until 9:30 p.m. as long as they have at most one. customer per 10 square meters (108 square feet) of floor area.
Hotels will remain closed, as will restaurants, except for take out and deliveries.
Schools will reopen in mid-April once teachers have been vaccinated, the government said.
Doctors and teachers’ groups have proposed tougher rules while professional associations have pushed for measured openness.
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