Economy 29 April 2021, 9:29am

COVID-19: More daily cases, nearly 190 deaths

Portfolio

Hungarian authorities diagnosed 2,584 people with coronavirus infection over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 776,983. 186 people have died of coronavirus-related diseases; the death toll is up at 27,358 and Hungary continues to have the highest number of COVID-19 deaths per one million people in the world. The official government portal also reported that over 3.87 million people have been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-1 so far, which means the next milestone set to 4 million is getting closer and the cabinet will announce another round of easing measures. Portfolio estimates that the threshold will be reached tomorrow and the next stage in the re-opening of the economy can start on Saturday.

Although the number of new daily confirmed cases is slightly over the 7-day rolling average, the descending trend remains clear. The pandemic is in retreat in Hungary, according to official data which increases chances that the easing of curbs will not cause a serious break in the epidemic pattern.

The pressure on the health care system is also abating. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals is decreasing fast, and there are fewer people on ventilators too. However, ICUs are far from being empty. The number of daily COVID-19 deaths is a lot higher than the decline in the number of ventilated patients (most of those that pass away previously required mechanical ventilation). There are currently 5,554 coronavirus patients in hospital, with 662 of them on ventilators.

Unfortunately, the number of daily COVID-19 deaths decreases extremely slowly, and 186 people have died of coronavirus-related diseases in Hungary over the past 24 hours.

The slow retreat of the pandemic is also suggested by the fact that 11% of all tests performed over the last seven days were positive. While this figure still does not indicate that the spread of the virus is in check (the positivity rate should be under 5% for that, under WHO advisement) the positivity rate has been indeed on an ascending trend. This does not change the fact, though, that very few tests are performed (16,000 over the past 24 hours).

A total of 96,000 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, and while the speed of the inoculation programme is laudable it would take a miracle to reach 4 million vaccinated people by the time the next daily report is published on Friday morning. We're currently at 3.87 million with first doses, which means 130,000 jabs should be administered in the next 24 hours.

We have a bet, though, that the government will announce tomorrow that the 4 million milestone was reached and the next re-opening stage is to ensue. We wouldn't be surprised if the announcement was made by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in his morning radio interview.