Speaking at this morning’s regular Operational Group press conference, Director of the South-Pest Central Hospital István Vályi-Nagy said that colleagues and hospital staff have, at times, been under “immense pressure,” with many doctors literally moving into the hospital during the past few weeks.
Thanking fellow doctors, nurses and medical workers, Vályi-Nagy said that “Hungary has performed well in handling the virus,” adding that “in terms of the number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, we are doing far better than the countries of Western Europe.”
“The epidemic, however, did not go away; it is only in decline,” the hospital director warned.
Discussing the reopening of nursery schools in rural Hungary, Zoltán Maruzsa, State Secretary of Public Education at the Ministry of Human Resources, said that those institutions will reopen on Monday, followed by nurseries in Budapest on June 2.
Maruzsa revealed that the digital curriculum will remain in force until the end of the academic year. Schools, however, may be visited starting from June 2. “It’s a new task,” the state secretary said, “that schools will have to ensure supervision for students between June 2 and June 26.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with Kossuth Rádió this morning, Csaba Dömötör, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister, said that “Hungary has closed the first phase of its defense against the virus with great results.”
“The coronavirus epidemic claimed a much smaller number of lives in Hungary than in other European countries. This is what makes the gradual restart of normal life now feasible, and this is what enables the government to focus its efforts on protecting jobs,” Dömötör said.
The number of confirmed people infected with the coronavirus in Hungary now stands at 3,741. In compulsory home quarantine: 11,934. Recovered: 1,690. Deceased: 486.
Photo credit: Origo