Speaking about the coronavirus situation in Hungary on Kossuth Rádió’s morning program, “Good morning, Hungary,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that there are four prerequisites to effectively managing the coronavirus threat.
First, we need personnel. “We have enough; the state is ready to mobilize the necessary amount of healthcare professionals to halt the epidemic,” PM Orbán said, adding that he has ordered the manufacture and procurement of the second prerequisite: tools. Third, we need the financial resources. According to the prime minister, “the fight against coronavirus will have no financial obstacles,” because it is about human lives.
Lastly, in order to keep the virus under control, we need discipline and we need courage.
“There are optimistic reports out there that say the virus has ended in China, but these are false,” PM Orbán said, warning that we shouldn’t believe the illusion that this will end in a matter of weeks or months: “We need to take into account that our lives will change compared to how they were before.”
In China, the number of cases has been increasing for five to six months, and it will take a few more months until it finally disappears, Orbán said. According to the PM, we need to prepare for the same in Europe.
Speaking about the pandemic’s impact on the economy, the prime minister said that “we will need to face grave consequences.” The government is therefore working on separate economy protection action plans for Hungary’s different sectors.
While the state of the economy is important, PM Orbán said, “right here and right now, human lives come first; prevention is key to keeping the number of victims and infections as low as possible.”
Commenting on the “logical connection” between the spread of coronavirus and migration, Prime Minister Orbán said that “we are fighting a two-front war: One front is called migration, and the other one belongs to the coronavirus.” Hungary didn’t let anyone in before, we won’t start doing so now, the PM confirmed.