The Budapest and Debrecen airports have started screening passengers arriving from Italy for coronavirus, the chief medical officer said on Monday.

Though Hungarian authorities have received no reports of confirmed coronavirus cases in Hungary so far, the latest recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) call for the introduction of new procedures in coronavirus screenings, Cecília Müller told a press conference.

She said Italy’s ambassador to Hungary recently briefed the operative board set up to coordinate preventive measures against coronavirus on the situation regarding the virus in Italy.

The virus so far is most prevalent in Lombardy and Veneto regions but cases have also been reported in Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont, Müller said.

The chief medical officer noted that a group of 11 secondary school students, two teachers and two drivers, who returned from northern Italy on Sunday night, have been placed in a two-week quarantine at South Pest Central Hospital.

The foreign ministry’s consular service recommends that people planning a visit to Italy should make a final decision following “thorough consideration” due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Featured photo illustration by Zoltán Balogh/MTI