Hungary PM announces new COVID fatality record

We still don’t know when the third wave will peak, as the pandemic curve could rise further or flatten to a wide plateau, Orbán said, but he has not announced any new measures. He did share some of the daily virus statistics:

• There were 275 fatalities yesterday, an unfortunate new high.
• There are 12,823 coronavirus patents in hospital. This figure has effectively been stagnating for four days, which is somewhat strange given the current pandemic situation.
• There are 1,480 people on ventilators, another sad new record.
• More than 100,000 people were vaccinated yesterday, so 1.803 million people have already got the first shot of the vaccine and nearly 600,000 got both shots.

Aside from the above gloomy statistics, the prime minister said there were further reserves in health care, including 10,343 vacant hospital beds and 1,693 ventilators. “We also have manpower reserves, although these are not infinite,” he added.

There are now 500 volunteers with medical qualifications and 1,200 medica lstudent working in COVID hospital wards, Orbán said.

Cover photo: Orbán's Facebook