Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the reopening of schools went smoother than expected earlier this week, with well above 50% of children returning to kindergartens and schools.
The prime minister told public broadcaster Kossuth Radio that the efficacy of vaccines was still under debate, but experience suggested that after receiving the first shot, only around 1% of people fall ill. This means that this group can be considered to be essentially protected, he added. Vaccination continues to be vital, he said, adding that more than half of the adult population will be protected by the middle of next week. He said a new online surface is now available where it is possible to reserve a time for vaccination.
Orbán said anti-vaxxers had “a strong voice”, insisting that “the whole of the opposition” belongs to them. Yet, all vaccines are equally effective, he added. A large volume of vaccines are scheduled to arrive in the upcoming days, so most probably everyone who has registered will have been vaccinated by mid-May, he said. Once that happens, vaccines will be offered to any Hungarian from any part of the world who travels to Hungary, he added.
Commenting on the extension of the state of special legal order, he said the pandemic was not over yet and the country must maintain operability during parliament’s summer recess, with the government having to make all the requisite decisions. Orbán also said the number of deaths was not a political matter and he asked everyone to “show more respect” when talking about fatalities. The European Union offers an information website where the number of current deaths can be compared with the pre-Covid period. Hungary belongs to the better-performing countries, according to this website, he said. In Hungarian statistics, however, the number of people who died as a result of Covid is not separated from the number of people who died while having Covid, he added.
The prime minister said vaccines were bedeviled by business and geopolitical interests, and in Europe in particular, politics had overtaken humanitarian considerations. He added that the reason why Hungary’s vaccination programme was successful because no one could “tell the country what to do”.
hungarymatters.hu
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