In Budapest autumn leaves are falling but Hungary's covid cases are only rising - they've doubled in the past week. Some experts are predicting another 6,000 deaths over the next few months – on top of 30,000 in the third wave.

From the start of November masks will be required on public transport, vaccines will be mandatory for government workers and private companies can also request vaccination for staff. 

The measures come more than a month after medical bodies in Hungary began calling for restrictions. Public health experts say the action now is too late.

 Dr Balazs Rekassy, a health advisor to the mayor of Budapest, believes there need to be stronger measures to have any chance of bringing down cases in the fourth wave. "We need further measures like compulsory mask wearing in public places, hopefully with these measures and taking restrictions seriously - which means those who are unvaccinated need extra limitations – we can avoid further escalation.”

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Employment lawyers believe putting the decision on to business to mandate vaccines won't necessarily bring higher immunity and making the decision to make vaccines compulsory could severely impact operations because people can be given a year of unpaid leave.

Marta Mraz told CGTN Europe: "They firstly will try with a softer or more gradual approach, for example if it's possible to send employees to a home office or to use any other option… if it's not working or it's not possible because of the type of work, then they probably will apply this law.”

Poland is also introducing restrictions in its worst hit areas. The health ministry had earlier warned the country could see 5,000 cases a day by the end of October. On Friday there were more than 9'000.

Hungary began the year strongly when it comes to vaccines, vaccinating people earlier than some other EU countries. The government then opened the economy once half the population had had their first dose and after that vaccination numbers slowly began to drop off. 

Both Hungary and Poland have since managed to fully vaccinate over 60 percent of adults but they're along way behind the EU average of 75 percent.

Vaccine hesitancy has been blamed for the rise in COVID-19 cases during the fourth wave across Eastern and Central Europe. Romania and Bulgaria have the lowest covid vaccination coverage in the EU and are recording some of the highest death rates in the world, but restrictions and case numbers have led to an uptake in jabs.  

The Hungarian and Polish governments have insisted that returning to lockdowns is not the answer. Only time will tell if vaccine catch up will be enough to keep the health system afloat in the fourth wave.