Hungary has closed its borders to most foreigners, becoming the first country in Europe’s Schengen Travel Free Zone to do so since COVID-19 border restrictions were lifted in the region in June.
The measure, aimed at protecting Hungary as coronavirus cases continue to rise in Europe, was announced on Friday and went into effect at midnight on Tuesday.
Hungarian citizens and residents can enter the country, but will need to remain in quarantine for two weeks after doing so, unless they have two very recent negative COVID-19 test results and tests performed outside of Hungary are not accepted.
Non-Hungarian citizens or residents living within 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) of the Hungarian border will be able to cross into the country, provided they depart within 24 hours and do not go beyond 30 kilometers into Hungary. Non-Hungarians will also be able to transit the country via specific routes.
Following the requests of their governments, tourists from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia will also be able to enter Hungary if they have already booked a vacation there.
According to data from the World Health Organization, the coronavirus case count in Europe now exceeds 4 million after a 5.6% increase in the week ending August 23. Spain, Russia, France and Ukraine were responsible for more than half of those new cases.
“We have heard often in recent weeks that Europe is doing well, not just through the end of the summer, but beyond,” reads a BofA Securities investor note on Monday. But recent events no longer match that assumption. Daily cases are declining in the United States and increasing in Europe.”
Hungary is not the first country in the Schengen Area to re-introduce entry restrictions of some kind in recent months, in the hopes of stopping the spread of the virus from hotspots elsewhere in Europe. For example, Belgium does not allow the entry of Parisians; Denmark keeps out most of the Belgians and French; and most European countries urge their citizens to stay outside of Spain.
Germany, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, is trying to introduce a more coordinated cross-border response to the outbreak. According to AFP, Berlin has several proposals to avoid a “piecemeal approach” to travel restrictions.
A key proposal is the creation of a consensual list of areas in the EU that present a risk. Hungary’s decision to close its borders is based on its own “traffic light system” for contagion risk, which currently shows Hungary in green and everyone else in red.
