Restrictions extended until April 8

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Kiss said that current rules of mask wearing, as well as curfew regulations, and restrictions concerning restaurants and bars, cultural facilities, shops and schools, would remain unchanged.

The current border control regime along all Schengen borders, and entry restrictions will also be maintained until April 8, Kiss said.

Government extends wage support to hard-hit businesses for another month

The government is extending wage support for companies hit the hardest by pandemic restrictions through April, state secretary for employment policy Sandor Bodo said on Monday.

The government offered to cover half of gross wages of businesses that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic as it tightened restrictions and introduced a curfew in November. It also exempted those businesses from payroll tax, effectively subsidising two-thirds of payroll costs.

The subsidies were available first to companies in the tourism and catering sectors, but expanded in March to include companies impacted by the closure of non-essential businesses to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

So far, more than 52 billion forints (EUR 143,2m) in subsidies have gone toward preserving 132,000 jobs.

Companies may apply for the wage support until April 30.

2 million mark close: PM

Hungary has a good chance of having inoculated 2 million people against Covid-19 by Monday night, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said.

“The inoculation drive is progressing well,” the prime minister said in a video message on Facebook on Monday morning.

The prime minister said that “efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic continued in Hungary on Palm Sunday”, and thanked health-care workers for their efforts.

“Our doctors and nurses have been up to their task and Hungary’s health-care system has also tackled the pressure,” Orbán said.

He said that teachers have now been moved up on the inoculation list to receive their jabs and asked them to register for vaccination by midnight on Monday, so that kindergartens and schools could reopen as soon as possible.