British Expats - Coronavirus

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- - Coronavirus (https://britishexpats.com/forum/hungary-140/coronavirus-930712/)

***MESSAGE FROM BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO BRITISH NATIONALS ARRIVING AT BUDAPEST AIRPORT***

I am delighted to inform you that we have been informed formally by the Hungarian authorities that with immediate effect British nationals resident in Hungary holding a Registration Certificate (RegisztrÃ¡ciÃ³s IgazolÃ¡s) and Address Card (LakcÃmet IgazolÃ³ hatÃ³sÃ¡gi IgazolvÃ¡ny or lakcÃmkÃ¡rtya) can enter Hungary automatically without having to send proof of this in advance of entry.

In other words, there is no need any longer to send an email to the police, as was previously advised. British nationals holding a Permanent Residence Card (ÃllandÃ³ TartÃ³zkodÃ¡si KÃ¡rtya) are also able to enter Hungary automatically.

I find it frustrating that the Government don't release details of the locations of the people infected with Covid-19. It wouldn't affect my daily routine as I'm trying to stay away from as many people as possible, with only occasional trips to the local shop. I had to go in to Eger last week and popped in to Lidl and bought enough goods (without going mad) to last us maybe a month. Our local shop stocks most things that we use but pasta, for example, is more expensive than in town.
Yesterday our elderly neighbour walked straight in to our kitchen, asking, in a very hoarse voice, if we could collect her prescriptions for her. She hadn't grasped the concept of self isolation or social distancing :/
My wife contacted the local mayor to ask if he will be supplying the village residents with face masks, as some other towns have done. He said he was trying to get hold of some but we should get gloves next week. I'm not sure how I'm going to breathe with one of those on my head though.
In the meantime, our dog is more than happy to have more long walks in the forest :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulinEger (Post 12824545)

Maybe there's a theory that if we don't know the locations, we will take extra care, in all situations! :lol:

As for your neighbour, we had a similar situation yesterday. Visiting quite a small shop yesterday (we are trying to patronise the smaller businesses) I stayed outside while my Wife went in, for just 2 things. 10 minutes later I am wondering where she has got to, so looked through the window. Turns out there's an old dear holding the shopkeeper as a hostage to gossip, meanwhile the queue is growing, in a small space, and becoming restless!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulinEger (Post 12824545)

I find it frustrating that the Government don't release details of the locations of the people infected with Covid-19.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expatrick (Post 12824564)

Maybe there's a theory that if we don't know the locations, we will take extra care, in all situations!

Correct - It also stops an exodus to those places with little or no infection.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulinEger (Post 12824545)

Yesterday our elderly neighbour walked straight in to our kitchen, asking, in a very hoarse voice, if we could collect her prescriptions for her. She hadn't grasped the concept of self isolation or social distancing :/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Expatrick (Post 12824564)

As for your neighbour, we had a similar situation yesterday. Visiting quite a small shop yesterday (we are trying to patronise the smaller businesses) I stayed outside while my Wife went in, for just 2 things. 10 minutes later I am wondering where she has got to, so looked through the window. Turns out there's an old dear holding the shopkeeper as a hostage to gossip, meanwhile the queue is growing, in a small space, and becoming restless!

Several of the local shops here (post office and bank included) have started a queuing system on the street only allowing in one person per assistant, so no queuing or crowding in the shop. One of the builders merchants does this, 2 vehicles on site at a time only - very good however the waiting drivers were standing by the gate in a (close formation) crowd chatting.

With all the 'stay home' messages I can see a number of effects, 1, a lot of very tidy gardens, 2, a spike in the divorce rate around autumn, 3, a baby boom about January next year !!

One of the opposition parties is also calling for regular publication of location, age, pre-existing conditions etc regarding C-19.
It seems that Hungarians are already heading for Lake Balaton even without figures being published, according to a news report I read earlier (can't find details now).

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaulinEger (Post 12824656)

It seems that Hungarians are already heading for Lake Balaton even without figures being published, according to a news report I read earlier (can't find details now).

I had heard that those doing home office and with holiday homes are leaving Budapest and heading for the hills. Makes sense (for them) - providing they don't bring the virus with them

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter_in_Hungary (Post 12824798)

I had heard that those doing home office and with holiday homes are leaving Budapest and heading for the hills. Makes sense (for them) - providing they don't bring the virus with them

This is also happening in the UK apparently ... as the UK faces lockdown, London in particular, as that is where the highest number of infections are, the wealthy are fleeing and heading to their holiday homes in places such as Cornwall and the locals there are, understandably, not happy !

In the UK our local pharmacy/chemists has a 'One customer only' notice pinned to the door. Next door is a greasey spoon cafe and they are selling 30 eggs for Â£8. Yes, my wife popped in and bought 30 eggs! You can guess what our breakfast, dinner and supper will include for the next week or so! The other shops, Co-Op, off licence, fish & chip shop, takeaways, etc. there's no limit to how many people are in there at any time!!! One of my neighbours works at the Co-Op and I'm slightly suspicious a co-worker had coronavirus and the neighbour should be self isolating but she has been out and about in her car. Her husband is a plumber and he's going to work as normal!!!
I think the Hungarian government should publish the locations of people affected by coronavirus but it could lead to people thinking the area they live is safe from coronavirus and act irresponsibly!
As to our dog enjoying longer walks ..... I've had to curtail that and be alert due to dog thieves operating in my area! The nearby park is like a quagmire due to the excessive rain we have had so it's been quite a few long walks on an extendable lead!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hobgoblins (Post 12823251)

It is all very confusing ... my residence card doesn't have a photo on it but it doesn't have an expiry date either ... I was under the impression that only those who were citizens or had gained citizenship were issued the version with a photo on it ?
Meanwhile, this from the Guardian ....
"â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹H ere is what the Guardian reporter posted from the BUD airport. It appears even if you have residency in Hungary you have serious trouble getting back in.

"Dozens of people are being held at Hungaryâ€™s Budapest airport, including the Guardianâ€™s central and eastern Europe correspondent, Shaun Walker, after the country closed its borders to almost all foreigners at short notice on Monday.
He writes: Iâ€™m in a room by a departure gate at the airport, with about sixty others in close confinement. They include those with homes, lives and partners in Hungary. Itâ€™s a chaotic situation, with people occasionally called for deportation. I landed from London at 1am and itâ€™s now 10am with little sign of progress, despite interventions from the British Embassy and Hungarian foreign ministry.
Hungaryâ€™s prime minister Viktor Orban announced Hungaryâ€™s borders would close at midnight on Monday, with just a few hours notice. On Tuesday this was relaxed to include European Economic Area nationals with permanent residency permits. However most Europeans who live and work in Hungary have only registration cards, the main legal requirement.
On Wednesday, European embassies had been led to believe that citizens with registration in Hungary, who could prove links to the country, would be allowed to enter. But that does not now appear to be the case.
On Thursday morning, an official told those in the transit area they had a choice of flying home or waiting an indefinite period of time, possibly several days, for approval to enter Hungary. He was met with shouts of â€œThis is our homeâ€ from several people, as well as complaints about the contamination risk given the close confines of the holding conditions."

We were some of that group with Shaun & it cost us a bloody fortune to get home as we had originally been due to fly home on Wed but changed it to Monday in light of the rapidly changing situation, We were refused to fly at Gatwick so lost the cost of changing the flights. We then went to Gatwick on Wed morning to get our papers checked & see if we were definitely allowed to fly ... yes yes.. yes of course you can ( after being checked by several very helpful people) The only flights were available to us were about Â£450 .. so we had no choice as we wanted to be home here. You can imagine how happy we were to get to Budapest & it was still 19 hours later before all the stuff was ironed out & we got to go home. Have to praise Tom & his team at the embassy, they were excellent & the Hungarian police & authorities we dealt with were all great. However, putting 50 people in a room, from several different countries was not a good plan in terms of the virus.

An expensive exercise then but glad you made it back in the end ! I had been on a trip to the UK and looked at flights with LOT which is who I normally fly from London City Airport to Budapest with ... their flights one way had gone up from the usual Â£30 ish to Â£150 for the cheapest right up to over Â£900 ... so they obviously wanted to put people off and to cancel flights. I went to Wizz Air and got a one way flight for the same day and time for Â£21.99 !
It looks like I left at just the right time to avoid the problems when arriving in Budapest ... straight through with no problems at all ....
Voluntary self isolation period now coming to an end but will still only be venturing out for essential supplies ...

Yeah I think there was bit of that going on but we just wanted to be home & had animals here to get back to. Just wish we had stuck with the original flights but hindsight is a wonderful thing & it could have gone either way so best be here as the UK would have cost us far more in the long run. Then I think the flights at the end of all this will be quite pricey anyway for a while.

Yes same here, I really need a trip to Practiker & Lidl.. then home again for another month. We don't go far at this time of the year as there is so much to do here anyways.

The threshold for contactless bank card purchases without needing a PIN has just been raised to 15,000 forint to reduce physical contact during payments. Every 6th purchase will require the PIN to be entered.

Quote:

Originally Posted by almafak (Post 12826286)

That's helpful, thanks for letting us know.

Yes, really a good idea - so we can do our regular shopping at the Lidl now without cash.