Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, when asked in a radio interview if Hungary’s health-care sector was prepared to deal with a surge in the number of coronavirus cases, said that in March Hungary had acquired the tools necessary to defend against the epidemic which would be put to use in the autumn.
“Everyone can rest easy. We have all the tools we need,” he said. Orbán added that Innovation and Technology Minister László Palkovics and Human Resources Minister Miklós Kásler had “devised a plan for how we can use our own production capacities to manufacture our own equipment instead of having to procure everything [from abroad] next time”. Hungary is a leader in ventilator production, he said, adding that there would come a time when every ventilator in the country is produced locally. “Hungary has good reason to be in a much more balanced state of mind ahead of the second wave of the epidemic than we were in March.”
The prime minister also said that he had received all the help he needed from Hungarian experts during the first wave of the epidemic. “The culture of national service in the scientific and medical world dealing with health care is remarkably strong,” he said. “I think this is one of the prerequisites of a successful defence [against the virus].” Orbán added that in the spring experts had said that until there was a vaccine against the virus the current state of uncertainty would remain. The world today is closer to finding a vaccine and there is a good chance that one that provides some level of protection will be available to the masses, so Hungary has “opened its taps in every direction, as it did in the spring”, he added.
hungarymatters.hu
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