COVID-19: Third wave slowly gathering pace
The 1,279 new daily confirmed cases show that the slightly ascending trend in the spread of coronavirus continued. The growth over the daily count a week ago is 22%.
The number of severe cases has dropped over the previous day, but the asending trend has not broken.
With 98 fatalities over the past 24 hours the rising trend in the number of coronavirus-related deaths has also continued. The last time more people died in a day was three weeks ago.
The rising positivity rate also suggests a faster spread of coronavirus in the country. This implies a slightly worsened detection rate in the last couple of days. The rise to over 9% from 7-8% is not dramatic, though. It's not like we have a rampant pandemic on our hands. At the same time, all indicators attest that even amidst the restrictions currently in place, the pandemic has been spreading at a sligthly faster rate rather than receding (the R number could be a bit over 1). This is important because it lowers chances of a risk-free lifting lockdown measures before a large enough percentage of the population is vaccinated against COVID-19 to reach herd immunity.
The vaccination campaign has slowed down dramatically over the last few days. Hardly more than 1,000 people got their first COVID-19 shot yesterday. This probably has to do with a shortage of supply and clearly demonstrates the sharp fluctuation in the vaccination campaign. When a new shipment arrives, there's a spike in vaccinations but then the campaign almost comes to a halt until the next batch is here.
The official government portal claims the vaccination campaign could pick up again possibly from tomorrow. It says the inoculation of the oldest group of citizens (89+) started last week and would continue on Thursday. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines required for them are being delivered to GPs now. Russia's Sputnik V vaccine will be used on four hospital vaccination sites in Budapest. As of today, GPs are starting to vaccinate people under 60 years of age with chronic diseases, and they have already been delivered the required AstraZeneca vaccine doses.
We should note, however, that people are not exactly breaking their neck to register for their COVID-19 shots. Although surveys show an increasing willingness to get vaccinated, the official government portal still says that "nearly two million people" have registered so far.
More to follow!
Cover photo: Getty Images
