COVID-19 in Hungary: daily cases hit another new high
The number of new coronavirus infections rose to a new peak yesterday, three weeks after the lockdown was introduced, as authorities confirmed 11,265 new cases in the past 24 hours. This means the measures introduced as of 8 March have been unable to slow the spread of the virus enough for daily new cases to switch to a declining trend.
The disease claimed the lives of 275, mostly elderly or chronic, patients yesterday, increasing the total death toll to 19,499 since last March, the official government website said. It should be noted, however, that during the third wave, the average age of coronavirus patients and fatalities have been significantly lower.
Hungary is now second behind Czechia in per capital fatalities since the pandemic began, and has had the most fatalities in proportion of its population first over the past few days.
There are currently 11,823 coronavirus patients in hospital, which is curious because the figure has stopped increasing in the past few days despite the swift spread of the virus. There are, however, more and more people on ventilators (currently 1,480, another record high).
Hospitals have reached the limits of their capacities and are no longer able to provide the same quality of care as before. The director of the Ózd hospital compared the current situation in his institution to that seen in Italy last year.
As for testing, authorities took 40,293 samples yesterday, 11,265 of which tested positive. This means the positivity rate remained very high, nearly 28%.
Overall today’s data indicate that the virus is still spreading fast in Hungary and the latest measures have been unable to contain it, while hospitals are overflowing with COVID patients. No wonder that both virus experts and the Hungarian Medical Chamber have urged tighter measures this week in order to slow the outbreak.
Meanwhile, the number of people vaccinated is also increasing, but this has not been able to contain the epidemic as inactive groups have been given priority. In any case, vaccination coverage is not high enough to affect the spread of the virus. The number of people who have got at least one dose of a vaccine rose to 1,803,533, while 594,662 people have already received both shots. “Vaccination coverage in Hungary has reached 17.9%, compared to the 9.9% EU average,” the official government website said. However, herd immunity requires 60% to 70% of the population to be vaccinated, and the UK variant of the coronavirus may necessitate up to 80%.
