Economy 28 October 2020, 8:54am

COVID-19: Nearly 2,300 new cases in Hungary

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Hungarian authorities diagnosed 2,291 people with coronavirus infection over the last 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 65,933. 43 patients have succumbed to the disease, taking the death toll to 1,578, while 17,098 patients have recovered. The number of active cases went up to 47,257 from 45,461. Budapest account for 27% of active cases, 35% of the deceased and 28% of recovered patients. There are currently 3,166 coronavirus patients in hospital, almost 300 more than on Tuesday, with 263 of them on ventilators (vs. 243 on Tuesday).

Today's figurs attest that the epidemic is spreading rapidly in Hungary. It is not just the number of new confirmed cases, considering that the detection rate remains low, but the sharp rise in the number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients (up by 275 from the previous day) and the higher number of patients on ventilators (263 vs. 243).

2,291 new daily confirmed cases is the third-highest figure on record since the coronavirus outbreak in the spring. As you can see on the chart above, the 7-day moving average is also on a sharply ascending trend.

The daily death toll at 43 comes after 47 and 63 coronavirus-related deaths in the previous two days. More than 800 people died from coronavirus and its consequences this month alone, and we estimate that the monthly death toll will be between 900 and 1,000.

Even if we assume that some of the people who have passed away due to coronavirus-related causes would have died from some other illness, the death toll in October will be higher than the usual (about 10,000) recorded in the last few years.

In early October, 10 to 20 coronavirus patients died per day, which figure went up to between 30 and 60 in the second half of the month. In view of the rise in the number of hospitalised patients and fatailities, November is expected to be the really difficult month, as we have 40 to 60 fatalities per day already and the ascending trend is most likely to continue.

As we have noted before, the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital went up by 275 to 3,166 over the last 24 hours and 20 more people (263) are currently on ventilators. This is the highest day-on-day increase in the number of hospitalised coronavirus patients since the outbreak in the spring.

The number of active cases exceeded 47,000, according to official government statistics, while the number of those diagnosed in the last 14 days is over 25,000.

Nearly 15,600 samples have been tested in the last 24 hours, 15% of which came back positive. The number of daily tests has increased from around 10,000 before, but the “percent positive rate” or “positivity rate” remains high which indicates a rapid spread of the virus.

The map below shows the cumulated number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Hungary in the last seven days, indicating that the virus is present and spreading everywhere in the country.