Beginning his interview on Kossuth Rádió’s program Good Morning, Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán confirmed that the current restrictions will remain in force for at least one more week, as epidemiologists have warned against reopening the country just yet.
“We have an abundance of free hospital beds and beds with ventilators,” PM Orbán said, adding that all of Hungary’s hospital directors are “experienced, well-prepared people.”
“The national consultation on the coronavirus is now closed,” the prime minister said, adding that “we need a vaccination plan that will tell us specifically what will happen when we reach 2.5 million inoculated Hungarians.” The steps of the reopening must be tied to the number of people vaccinated, PM Orbán said, noting that once we have vaccinated 2.5 million people, we will reach a situation where everyone above the age of 65 has been inoculated.
According to the latest figures, the number of people vaccinated against the coronavirus in Hungary will exceed 1.5 million today. Meanwhile, PM Orbán asked for a “little more patience” from families, businesses and young people. Turning to the Hungarian opposition, the PM said that “if they would surrender their anti-vaccination campaign, they would be doing the country a great service.”
Speaking about the general mental state of the country, Prime Minister Orbán said that compared to where we were one year ago, the population is “mentally worn out.” This is why we will need a plan to reboot society, not just the economy.
“Brussels should be occupied with such issues, but instead they are busy coming up with vaccine passport regulations,” Prime Minister Orbán said, adding that “right now, we expect vaccines from Brussels, not passport regulations.”
“But, oh Lord, this is the kind of Brussels we have, this is what we have to cook with,” the PM said jokingly.
Commenting on Fidesz’s recent departure from the European People’s Party, PM Orbán said that “it was good, it was nice, but we’d had enough.”