From Thursday, persons are allowed to travel from Hungary to Romania without a quarantine obligation, the deputy head of the duty centre of the Operational Group responsible for the fight against the coronavirus epidemic said at an online press conference held on Thursday.
Lt. Colonel Róbert Kiss said the Romanian national disease control operational group updated the list of high-risk countries on the basis of the Monday data of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Based on the decision of the Romanian law enforcement agencies, from the early hours of Thursday morning, Hungary is no longer among the countries rated as high-risk, he added.
He said in the past 24 hours the police had taken action in 39 instances due to the fact that passengers were not or were incorrectly wearing face masks on public transport. In shops and public institutions, they were required to take action due to the same violation in 37 instances.
He said up to Wednesday the police had taken action in 472 instances in total due to public transport-related violations, including 35 cautions and four prosecutions on Wednesday, while in commercial outlets and other places the police had been compelled to take action in 844 instances since the entry into force of the legislation. Regarding the latter violations, on Wednesday the police cautioned thirty persons, imposed two onsite fines and prosecuted five persons, Mr Kiss said.
The deputy head of the duty centre of the Operational Group also informed members of the public that up to Wednesday the police had taken action against those violating the disease control protective measures in effect since 21 September in 1,316 instances in total, resulting in the vast majority of cases, in 1,126 instances, in cautions.
On Wednesday, the police took action against transit passengers in Hungary due to the violation of the rules of transit in 58 instances, including 57 onsite fines and one prosecution.
Mr Kiss further reported that on Wednesday the police had carried out 11,960 onsite checks at persons in compulsory home quarantine. He added that on Wednesday 3,343 compulsory home quarantine orders had been issued, including 513 persons returning home from abroad; as a result, the total number of quarantine orders in effect currently stands at 24,710. 1,081 of them are being monitored electronically via the application downloaded onto their mobile phones.
The Lt. Colonel highlighted that the number of criminal procedures instituted in connection with the epidemic had risen to 474, and in these cases they had questioned 90 suspects so far.
He also said traffic at the borders of the country is smooth. Travellers should expect two- to three-hour waits at the Csanádpalota, Röszke, Tompa and Beregsurány border crossing points.
In answer to a question, Mr Kiss said the government decree on the rules of entry defines special rules for cross-border commuters. On the one hand, nationals of neighbouring states and Hungarian nationals living there may enter the territory of Hungary within a zone of maximum 30 kilometres from the border for maximum 24 hours.
On the other hand, Hungarians living within 30 kilometres of the Hungarian border are exempt from the disease control restrictions in effect upon returning from neighbouring states if their stay abroad did not exceed 24 hours and they remained within 30 kilometres of the Hungarian border in the neighbouring state.