Covid reopening may prove too much too early

HUNGARY - In Brief 26 Apr 2021 by Istvan Racz

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From Saturday, April 24, the open-air terraces of bars and restaurants were allowed to open. According to the official explanation, the factor prompting this step was that the number of domestic citizens with at least one shot of Covid vaccine had exceeded 3.5 million or 36% of the whole population.The government has announced that a much more far-reaching series of reopening steps will be carried out when total first-shot vaccination reaches 4 million, which is expected to take place within a few days (this morning, the cumulative number was 3.604 thousand). From that point onwards, hotels, restaurants, sport and cultural events, museums, spas, gyms, etc. will be able to receive guests, provided that the latter have a vaccination certificate (a plastic card that is currently being distributed to those who have received a first shot of a Covid vaccine). Shops, restaurants and bars will be allowed to keep open until 11pm and the start of the night curfew will be pushed back to midnight from 10pm currently. Eligible guests will be allowed to take children with them to all the places and events they can visit. Kindergartens and the lower classes of elementary schools were reopened on April 19, whereas the higher classes of elementary schools and high schools will reopen on May 10.In our view, this may prove too much too early. Already on Saturday, certain places in central Budapest looked like a festival, with crowds of typically unvaccinated youngsters - as the vaccination certificate is not required at open-air venues. The epidemic is still on, and even though vaccination is proceeding rapidly, herd immunity is still far away. By comparison, a similar reopening started ...