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Opposition DK Sues Gov’t For Info On Number Of People Tested

• 27 Apr 2020 8:17 AM
• Hungary Matters

The opposition Democratic Coalition is filing a lawsuit with the aim of forcing the government to reveal how many people have been tested for novel coronavirus in Hungary.

DK’s director László Sebián-Petrovszki told an online press conference that despite an official website announcing the number of samples taken each day, it is suspected that the actual number of people tested is only a fraction of the number of samples taken.

If it is true that every testing is repeated 3-4 times, then the officially announced figure of some 60,000 samples taken only translates to 15-20,000 people, he said.

This would mean that there is “virtually no screening”, and the government has no idea about the real number of people infected, he added. “If the government wants to restart the economy, this is not a matter of indifference” he said.

Sebián-Petrovszki said DK at first submitted a request for data in the public interest to the national public health centre, but Chief Public Health Officer Cecília Müller had “cynically” advised the party to consult the official website, which does not include the information requested. So the party has decided to sue to government and wants to force the operative board in charge of coordinating the response to the epidemic to release how many people were tested, he noted.

Meanwhile DK also called on the government not to drive the country to indebtedness through a planned forex bond issue. Klára Dobrev, MEP of the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) and vice-president of the European Parliament, said Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had “instructed his people to take out a forex loan worth 4 billion euros for Hungary” at a time of an “unprecedented weakening of the forint”.

On Thursday, national state debt manager ÁKK announced that it had changed its 2020 financing plan in line with the government’s increasing the country’s deficit target from 1% to 2.7% of GDP. Under the changes, the ÁKK would increase the cap for its forex bond issue scheme from 1 billion to 4 billion euros.

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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.

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