Vehicles wait to cross the border between Austria and Hungary in Nickelsdorf, Austria, on Sept. 1, 2020. Citizens of the fellow Visegrad Group (V4) countries were allowed into Hungary after Sept. 1, if they can show negative coronavirus test results not older than five days, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said. (Photo by Georges Schneider/Xinhua)
BUDAPEST, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Citizens of the fellow Visegrad Group (V4) countries will be allowed into Hungary after Sept. 1, if they can show negative coronavirus test results not older than five days, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto has said.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had talks on Monday, and agreed to exempt from the ban Czech citizens who had already booked their accommodation in Hungary for September, Szijjarto said in a post on Facebook.
Later in the day, Slovak and Polish citizens were also included in the exemption, as the V4 countries have cooperated closely in the fight against the coronavirus, the minister said on Facebook
The Hungarian government had decided to reintroduce the border controls that were in force during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Gergely Gulyas, head of the Prime Minister's Office, told the press on Aug. 28.
"From Sept. 1, foreign citizens will be barred from entering Hungary, with a few exceptions. Hungarian citizens returning from abroad must be quarantined for 14 days or have to present two negative (COVID-19) tests taken two days apart," Gulyas said.
According to official figures, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Hungary stood at 6,257 on Tuesday, with 3,821 recoveries and 616 fatalities. Enditem
