Business 15 February 2021, 9:27am

COVID-19 in Hungary: 1,337 new cases on Sunday

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Hungarian authorities confirmed 1,337 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases on Sunday, increasing the total to 388,799. The death toll rose to 13,752 after the disease claimed the lives of 46, mostly elderly or chronic, patients, the official government website said Monday morning.

The daily case number was the lowest for the past five days, although it is typically lower on Mondays as fewer tests are applied over the weekend. The trend remains slightly rising.

There were more than 11,000 tests applied yesterday, compared to more than 20,000 on each of the preceding four days. The positivity rate was 12%, above the 10% average of the past seven days.

There were 46 coronavirus-related fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 13,752. Daily casualty figures were between 50 and 100 for the past few weeks and have not been this low since October.

The number of active cases decreased by 544 to 77,039. The number of people who have recovered from a confirmed COVID-19 infection is now 298,008.

In a worrying trend, the number of people treated in hospital and receiving artificial ventilation have both increased, the former by 128 to 3,883 and the latter by 2 to 314.

So far, 336,297 people in Hungary received a coronavirus vaccine, and 129,339 of them have received both shots.

In recent days, primary care physicians have vaccinated most registered elderly (using the Pfizer vaccine) and chronic patients under 60 (with the AstraZeneca vaccine). In addition, four vaccination points located in Budapest hospitals have started vaccinating elderly people with no chronic diseases (using the Sputnik vaccine). Vaccination will continue this week, with the Operational Corps to reveal the weekly schedule at a press conference late Monday morning.

Hungary has ordered 19.7 million doses of vaccines from various manufacturers (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Curevac), for tens of billions of forints. Of these only Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have EU authorisation, and all three have begun deliveries to Hungary. In addition, China’s Sinopharm will deliver vaccines for 2.5 million people in the next four months, Russia will supply Sputnik V vaccine for 1 million people in three months. (Both vaccines have been approved for use in Hungary.) The first delivery of the Russian vaccine, 20,000 doses, arrived last week, while the first shipment of the Chinese vaccine, 550,000 doses, will arrive this Tuesday, the official government website said.

Cover photo: MTI/ Tamás Vasvári