COVID-19 in Hungary: still no end in sight after a month of lockdown

The number of new cases was surprisingly high yesterday, even as the number of tests was very low compared to the past two weeks at 29,315. Overall, data from the last few weeks do not indicate that the lockdown measures introduced a month ago broke the spread of the virus. This means the decision to extend the lockdown by another month until 11 January was justified.

There were 5,415 new cases confirmed yesterday, with the seven-day average dropping further to 4,737, indicating a downward trend as the orange line on the graph shows. Nevertheless, today’s figure is above this average and is higher than in the previous two days.

We are hoping to see the beginning of a similar downward trend in fatalities, but the 171 deceased kept yesterday’s figure high. Unfortunately, this indicates that no major short-term decrease in daily deaths is to be expected for the time being.

It is also apparent that the steep rising trend in the number of people in hospital and on ventilators has broken, although it is too early to talk about a major turnaround. As a result, the pressure on Hungary’s healthcare system has not decreased a month into the lockdown.

Authorities applied 29,325 tests in the past 24 hours, a low figure compared to the past two weeks, and the positivity rate rose to 18% again due to 5,415 positive results. It should be noted that the number of rapid tests applied above this is unknown and will probably be released in a massive batch early next week.

The highest number of new cases yesterday was reported from Budapest (638) and Pest county (531), followed by Hajdú-Bihar county with 373. The same three administrative regions top the weekly list with 5,155, 3,955 and 2,165 new cases, respectively.

Cover photo: MTI/ Zoltán Balogh