Hungary set to cautiously reopen schools, kindergartens

Hungary will partially reopen kindergartens and schools starting next Monday, but only for the first four grades of primary schools, as digital education will remain in place for older children, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday, reported Xinhua.

"Due to caution and a gradual opening, the government decided this week that along with high school students, older elementary school students (grades 5-8) will not go back to school next Monday," Orban said on public radio MR1.

"It is always difficult to restart schools, because on one hand you have the parents who already want to work and want their kids back at school, and on the other hand you have those who are still opposed to the opening," Orban said.

According to Orban, the decision on the gradual reopening of schools had to be taken so that parents could return to work as soon as possible.

"However, those who do not want to take their kids to school can stay at home," Orban added.

Orban also spoke about the vaccination program, noting that the number of Hungarians who have registered for the free and voluntary jab topped 4.2 million.

The prime minister said the next six weeks would be decisive, as Hungary would be able to double the number of people vaccinated, and by the end of May, beginning of June, Hungary would be out of "troubled waters."

He also said that due to concerns over blood clots, the Janssen vaccine - the first shipment of which arrived earlier this week in Hungary - has been dropped out of the vaccination program until further examination, and that it was "a serious problem."

Hungarians now have access to vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm.

Hungary is the first European Union member state to purchase a Chinese vaccine and authorize its use.

On Friday, Hungary registered 5,216 new COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour span, taking the national total to 742,198, according to official data.

In the past 24 hours, 241 people have died from the disease, bringing the toll to 24,762 in the country, while 445,920 have recovered. Currently, 9,459 patients are being treated in hospitals, including 1,117 on ventilators, figures from the government's coronavirus information website showed.

As of Friday, 3,145,592 people have received at least the first shot of a vaccine, while 1,349,314 had two jabs, the website showed.