Economy 8 April 2021, 10:35am

COVID-19: 4,814 new cases, 272 deaths

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Hungarian authorities diagnosed 4,814 people with coronavirus infection over the past 24 hours (officially, but there could be a 2-day delay), taking the total to 698,490. 272 people have died of coronavirus-related diseases; the death toll is up at 22,681. There are currently 11,663 COVID-19 patients in hospital, with 1,337 of them on ventilator. The vaccination campaign is ongoing. A total of 2,608,084 people have received their first, and 1.077,947 their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the official government portal reported on Thursday.

egészségügy kórház koronavírus kórházi ágy

With 4,814 newly identified infections, Hungary's record of COVID-19 infections since the spring of 2020 goes up to 698,490. Changes in the number of new daily confirmed cases tell us little about the trajectory of the pandemic without knowing testing statistics, but fortunately the latter also show favourable developments (see further below).

272 people have died of coronavirus-related diseases officially in the last 24 hours but possibly on Tuesday, taking the death toll to 22,681. Daily mortality remains extremely high.

There are 11,663 people with coronavirus infection in hospital, with 1,337 of them on ventilator. The decline can be attributed to the extremely low number of tests performed for three days in a row. This means that there is not necessarily fewer people in hospital, only they did not get their COVID-19 tag.

Authorities performed 30,023 tests and 16% of them came back positive. In view of the recent testing record and positivity rates, this is reassuring, and it will be even more if it the rate drops further. The number of tests and positivity rates of the previous few days looked like this:

12,201 - 16%
11,194 - 17%
18,908 - 20%
27,094 - 24.2%
36,598 - 23.6%
39,993 - 22.6%
40,444 - 23%

The rolling 7-day average positivity rate remains over 20%, but it has also been edging lower. Note that it was around 20% in late October 2020 when there were 3,000 cases per day and rising. It was at the same level again in mid-November with about 4,500 new daily cases which prompted the government to implement lockdown measures. Now it has started to ease the curbs. Go figure.

Up to date, 2,608,084 people in Hungary have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 1,077,947 have got their second jab too. These figures translate into 26.7% and 11% of the population, respectively.