Dr. Béla Merkely talked about the recently introduced restrictive measures and asked for a cooperative attitude from people in an interview on M1 News. The rector emphasized that it is very important to carry on with our work and to continue the education of children, but in the meantime we have to reduce the number of our contacts as much as possible and we have to comply with the rules of proper mask use.
Complying with the recently introduced restrictive measures is of utmost importance – highlighted Dr. Béla Merkely in the interview he conducted on M1 News.
“I would like to ask for the same cooperative attitude from the people that we were capable of performing during the first wave of the epidemic”, said the rector.
According to him, the restrictive measures will be efficient only if they are realized in practice as well.
“If people carry on with their work, their children go to elementary school, but in the meantime the number of their contacts are reduced as much as possible and everybody wears a mask, the number of COVID-19 cases will decrease as well”, pointed out Dr. Merkely.
“Essentially the restrictive measures have an effect on two levels. On the one hand, they contribute to the significant reduction of contacts among people, hopefully with more than 60%, which would be able to slow down the epidemic. The other level is the use of protective equipment: the expansion of mask use also inhibits the spread of the virus”, said the rector.
According to the rector of Semmelweis University, the recently introduced measures resemble the Austrian example the most. Should the need arise, these measures can either be tightened or eased on the basis of what the numbers show.
“All in all, I think that these measures were taken in time, since it is evident that we can still take care of the patients, but there is already a growing amount of pressure on health care workers. If this had been going on for weeks, the human resources of health care would have been overloaded. This, by all means has to be avoided, as there are still some more months ahead until a considerable amount of vaccination will be available”, emphasized Dr. Merkely.
Ádám Szabó
Photo source: M1 News – Interview with Dr. Béla Merkely
Translation: Katalin Illés-Romhányi
