Economy 18 February 2021, 8:57am

COVID-19: Number of new cases nearly double

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Hungarian authorities diagnosed 2,853 people with coronavirus infection on Wednesday, nearly double of the previous day's reading (1,548), although the number of tests performed remained around 20,000. This could mean that the third wave is here.

koronavírus járvány korona maszk védőruha

The last time this many new cases were confirmed in a day was on 9 January, five weeks ago, while restrictions remained in place. This suggests that with the UK coronavirus variant spreading in the country, we should expect a further rise in daily cases, more coronavirus patients in hospitals, on ventilators and eventually in graves.

The number of tests rose from less than 20,000 to 20,855 yesterday, while the number of positive cases nearly doubled. The positivity rate was therefore 14%.

Unfortunately fatalities hit a four-week high yesteray at 104, and the total passed the 14,000 mark.

For several weeks now, the number of pople treated in hospital and those on ventialtors have both been rising, indicating adverse trends. The former number rose by 7 to 4,021 and the latter by 11 to 332 yesterday.