All teachers will be inoculated before schools reopen, Gergely Gulyás told a press briefing. High schools, public schools and kindergartens are likely to reopen on April 12 or 19, he said, and called on teachers to register to be vaccinated.

Hungary’s health-care system is well-equipped and staffed to “treat everyone, albeit under a strained work schedule, even if caseload climbs further,” Gulyás said, insisting that the health-care system was able to handle the growing burden, and that 10,441 beds and 1,678 ventilators were unoccupied.

Gulyás added, however, that the only solution to eradicating the pandemic was vaccination. Only a very few people contract the disease after having received the vaccine, he added.

He noted that some 650,000 pensioners have not yet registered for the vaccine. The chief medical officer has written them a letter encouraging them to register, he added.

In elderly care homes, which were among the first institutions in which vaccinations were administered, the number of new infections has fallen to below 1%, he noted.


MTI Photo: Tibor Rosta