Economy 4 March 2021, 9:25am

COVID-19 in Hungary: 6,278 new cases, 152 dead

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Hungarian authorities confirmed 6,278 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases on Wednesday, increasing the total since last March to 446,178. The death toll rose to 15,476 after the disease claimed the lives of 152, mostly elderly or chronic, patients. Both figures are by far the highest seen so far in the third wave and are nearing last autumn’s record highs. The pandemic is still is a strong accelerating phase in Hungary, the official government website said.

The 6,278 new cases means the third wave has simply skipped the 5,000s, as the highest daily figure this year was 4,948. Yesterday’s case number was higher than the peak of the trend line, with more cases reported only a few days in the past one year.

The number of severe cases is also indicating that the virus is spreading faster. Both the number of people in hospital and the number of people on ventilators increased further yesterday, although a bit less steeply than in previous days. Nevertheless, the number of people receiving artificial ventilation will match its previous peak in just a few days and we can be sure it wil eventually reach much higher.

In the past 24 hours, 152 people died of coronavirus-related causes. This suggests that this statistic has also begun a steep increase, although the trend line is well below the previous peak.

The rising positivity rate of tests also confirms that the situation is getting worse. In the past seven days, 18% of tests came back positive, which means the daily number of new cases is growing steeply even as detection efficiency is decreasing.

Meanwhile, vaccination continues in Hungary and is picking up pace, with 8% of the population now vaccinated at least partly. So far, 785,440 people have received the first dose of the vaccine and 267,153 of them the second one as well.