Coronavirus: Hungary 'Unlikely To Avoid Mass Illnesses'
- 21 Mar 2020 6:58 AM
- Hungary Matters
The novel coronavirus outbreak in Hungary has not reached the stage of mass illnesses, but this is likely soon, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview.
Medical professionals say large case numbers cannot be prevented, but the epidemic can be slowed down, Orbán told public broadcaster Kossuth Radio.
The aim now is to slow down the virus’s spread so the health-care system can handle serious cases, he added.
“We have organised collective defence … the Hungarian community is ready to protect itself,” Orbán said. “We have a proper military plan of defence.”
Orbán said it was expected that most patients in need of intensive care would be elderly but children with immunodeficiency were also endangered by the virus.
The prime minister said schools and designated kindergartens will accept the children of parents who cannot stay at home.
Orbán insisted that the government had acted promptly on the advice of epidemiologists and caught the spread of the virus at an early stage of the epidemic, but mathematical models indicated that whereas the spread of the virus can be slowed down, in time the disease would be roughly evenly distributed across Europe.
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