• Home
• Channel: Current Affairs
• PM Orbán: 2nd Wave Of Pandemic Curbed

PM Orbán: 2nd Wave Of Pandemic Curbed

• 16 Jan 2021 7:51 AM
• Hungary Matters

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió that it appeared the second wave of the epidemic had been reined in and recoveries outnumbered new infections. At the same time, he referred to a “third wave” in other parts of Europe as “bad news”.

Orbán said confidence among Hungarians concerning vaccinations was steadily growing. Soon, more than 1.7 million people over the age of 60 with chronic illness will receive the vaccine, he said, adding that vaccines would be in plentiful supply once approval were given for the Chinese vaccine.

He said vaccination of around 1.5 million people was possible in a single weekend.

Referring to a request by Stella Kyriakides, EU commissioner for health and food safety, that member states should not negotiate separately with vaccine manufacturers, Orbán said that more than a hundred Hungarians were dying every day.

“A Greek commissioner shouldn’t tell me what to do,” he said.

He said it would be possible to get “our old lives back” long before the summer if the Chinese vaccine were approved.

Meanwhile, commenting on the increase in industrial output, Orbán said people were keen to work and make a living from working. Amid the economic crisis, the government, he added, was combining tax cuts with job retention measures and investments.

“More people had a job in December than a year earlier,” he said, adding that the moratorium on loan repayments had left 3,000 billion forints with households and companies.

As well as the phased reintroduction of the 13-month pension, the government also launched “the biggest ever housing renovation and home-building scheme”, he said.

The prime minister said that the country had pulled away from the brink of a crisis in 2010 and that it was possible to repeat the same feat.

“We know what Hungarians like and don’t like”, he said, adding that the government’s understanding of its citizens was key to successful crisis management.

Orbán said that success this year would be based on understanding that people want to work, and this would require a tax cut.


MTI Photo

Related links

Chinese Covid Jab Key For Hungary Says PM Orbán

• How does this content make you feel?
• I love it
• I like it
• I dislike it

• PM Orbán Pandemic Covid-19

XpatLoop Media Partner

Hungary Matters

Launched in January 2014, this newsletter published on week days covers 'everything you need to know about what’s going on in Hungary and beyond', according to its publisher the state media agency MTI.

Explore More Reports

How Whistle-Blowers Help Journalists in Central Eastern Europe & How They Are Protected

• 27 Nov 2023 6:44 AM

A few weeks ago, the firing of a department head at Corvinus University of Budapest caused a stir in Hungary: the professor had previously reported and initiated an ethics investigation regarding an influential family’s child finishing the semester in spite of not fulfilling the semester requirements.



Clocks To Go Back In Hungary On 29 October

• 25 Oct 2023 4:35 PM

The clocks change twice a year for all residents of the European Countries, by one hour each time, once going backwards and once going forwards. In Europe the clocks go Back on the last Sunday in October every year, this time on Sunday 29 October.



47 New Cases of Covid in Hungary, 2 Fatalities

• 22 Jun 2023 10:51 AM

Fully 47 new Covid-19 infections were confirmed last week, while two fatalities were registered in connection with the virus, the Coronavirus Press Centre said on Wednesday.



16,249 New Covid Cases, 117 Fatalities Last Week in Hungary

• 18 Aug 2022 10:58 AM

Fully 16,249 new Covid-19 cases were registered last week, while 117 people died in connection with the virus, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Wednesday in a round-up of last week’s data.