Economy 24 March 2021, 8:38am

COVID-19: Record number of patients on ventilators

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Hungarian authorities diagnosed 7,587 people with coronavirus infection, and 249 people have died of coronavirus-related diseases over the past 24 hours, the official government portal reported on Wednesday morning. The pressure on hospitals remains massive, the sector could be extremely close to reaching capacity. Although the number of hospitalised COVID-19 patients has dropped slightly, there is a record number of patients that are kept alive by mechanical ventilation.

koronavirus magyarorszagon uj fertozottek elhunytak

The pandemic is not letting up in Hungary, it is still in an upward trend due to the extremely fast spreading of the UK variant.

a total of 7,587 new coronavirus infections were diagnosed yesterday, taking the total number of infected people to 593,710.

The number of new daily confirmed cases is not the highest of the past few days, but still extremely high.

the latest daily figure is double the one reported a week ago (which was outstandingly low) which drove the 7-day moving average to over 8,700, a new all-time high.

With 249 new coronavirus deaths recorded yesterday, the death toll is up at 18,952. This is the second-highest number since the outbreak last spring, after 252 deaths reported for Monday.

the 7-day moving average has also been rising constantly and reached 219 by now.

The latest figures also attest that Hungary's health care system operates under extreme strain. Although the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals dropped by 68 to 11,805, this cannot be regarded as an improvement, as hospitals are working close to their capacity (and also because the decline includes those that succumbed to the disease).

it is also bad news that the number of covid-19 patients on ventilators rose to 1,423, the highest on record.

Read our analyis of the current health care situation with particular emphasis on ventilation capacities at the link below.

Over the past 24 hours, authorities performed 33,316 COVID-19 tests and nearly 23% of them came back positive, which, sadly, is the lowest reading since 14 March. The dramatic thing here is not that it's the lowest positivity rate of the past 10 days, but that 23% can still be good news.

The vaccination campaign continues, and up to date 1,696,110 people have received COVID-19 shots, with 494,520 of them vaccinated with the second jab as well. This translates into nearly 60,000 vaccinations yesterday, an improvement over the previous days.

According to current data, 17.36% of the population have received their first and 5.06% their second jabs.