At today’s presser of the Coronavirus Operational Group, Róbert Kiss, lieutenant colonel of the Hungarian police, announced that on Wednesday, a law will come into force mandating that foreign citizens requesting exemptions from the entry ban must submit their applications electronically to the national police chief. He further added that they can only grant such exemptions in exceptional cases.
He also reported that the number of criminal proceedings in connection with the epidemiological situation has risen to 352; these cases have been divided between fraud, scaremongering, and the violation of epidemiological rules.
Answering a question from the press, Kiss also said that the government will discuss the easing of movement restrictions at its meeting on Wednesday, and Minister Gergely Gulyás will provide information on any decisions made on Thursday.
Cecília Müller, Hungary’s chief medical officer, began her remarks by thanking all nurses and nursing staff on the occasion of International Nurses' Day. “Appreciation for the work of nurses has increased recently in the current situation […] the work of healthcare would not be successful without nurses,” she said.
Regarding the numbers, Müller said that “the number of newly confirmed cases is stable, with the number of active infections now 1,181; 60% of these are located in Budapest and Pest County, but there is also an improvement [in these areas]”.
She also reported that the lab of the National Public Health Center (NNK) participated in a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test in which the lab had to be able to detect the coronavirus and the quantity present in unknown samples. “The NNK passed this test with 100 percent,” Müller said, adding that “the message here is that there is a reliable laboratory providing support for epidemiological safety in Hungary.”