The Prime Minister stressed that today is an important day because inoculation with the Chinese vaccine is beginning today.

“This gives me hope, too, that perhaps sometime next week, it may be the turn of those leading the fight against the epidemic,” he added.

In the Prime Minister’s view, the situation is not easy. He said all at once we have the good news that more vaccines have arrived in the country, and as a result, the number of vaccinated persons will increase, and the bad news that the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic is threatening Hungary.

“These two trends, these two curves are racing against one another,” Mr Orbán pointed out, asking people also on behalf of the epidemiological experts he spoke to during his consultations to have themselves vaccinated in the largest possible numbers.

At the same time, the Prime Minister also stated that “the easing of restrictions can be ruled out for the time being”.

He said there is one question that they will consider.

The residents of elderly care home – 80 per cent of whom have already been vaccinated – are suffering much due to the fact that their loved ones cannot visit them, and neither are they allowed to leave the institutions they live in. “We would like to find an acceptable solution from a human point of view in this regard,” he highlighted.

As part of a three-day series of consultations with epidemiological experts, on Tuesday, Mr Orbán first met with the board members of the Medical Research Council. After the meeting, the Prime Minister said in a video posted on Facebook that experts are calling for caution.