Hungary to review rules on travel to neighbours after COVID-19 spikes

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will on Thursday review rules on travel to neighbouring Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia where numbers of coronavirus cases have been rising, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said.

The landlocked country lifted most of its lockdown restrictions and opened its borders to travellers from European Union states and neighbouring non-EU members in June.

But Gergely Gulyas said the coronavirus task force would meet later on Thursday to discuss the rules on cross-border travel. He told a news conference that infections had been rising in Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia and Austria in the past two weeks.

"Wherever we have a small new coronavirus infection cluster, the infectious person brought the virus into the country from abroad," Gulyas added.

Hungary, which has a population of around 10 million, had recorded 4,220 cases of COVID-19 and 591 related deaths as of Thursday.

Austria issued travel warnings for Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova on Wednesday because of the worsening coronavirus situation in those states.

(Reporting by Anita Komuves; Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)