The authorities are taking measures, however, to enforce home quarantine measures more stringently, the head of the board’s emergency centre, Tibor Lakatos, said.

So far, the authorities have ordered 3,065 homes into quarantine and checked compliance 8,293 times, he said, adding that anyone ignoring home quarantine instructions or otherwise disregarding the work of health-care workers and disaster management experts put the effectiveness of the response at risk. Lakatos added that goods are flowing freely in the country.

Meanwhile, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said it was crucial for parliament to extend the state of emergency declared last week in connection with protective measures against the novel coronavirus.

Official website koronavirus.gov.hu noted on Thursday that the epidemic in Hungary had entered in its second phase, as the virus is being transmitted in communities, not just from one individual to another.

MTI Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák