Economy 2 November 2022, 9:00am

Hungary to publish Covid stats off schedule this week

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Instead of Wednesday, Hungarian authorities are expected to publish coronavirus statistics in the second half of the week, the official government portal dealing with COVID-19 issues reported on 31 October, citing the long weekend (All Saints' Day) as the reason for the delay.

Due to All Saints' Day and the Day of the Dead, the release of coronavirus-related data is expected in the second half of the first week of November, koronavirus.gov.hu said over the long weekend. We believe the new statistics are likely to be released on Friday morning.

In the seven days up to last Wednesday, local authorities diagnosed 9,023 people with SARS-CoV-2 infection, showing a 24% week-on-week decrease after a 4% drop. 140 people died of coronavirus-related diseases over that seven-day period, versus 118 a week earlier (+19% after a 13% rise). There were 1,361 people with COVID-19 in hospital as of 25 Oct, 14% fewer than a week earlier, while 25 of them were on ventilator, nearly 40% more than a week earlier, which came after a 44% w/w drop. The figures remain extremely volatile.

The table above includes the number of new COVID-19 infections, coronavirus-related deaths, and the number of infected people in hospital and on ventilator for the week up to 27 September, as well as the week-on-week changes for the past four weeks. The closer the colour of the cell is to green, the greater the w/w decline / smaller the w/w growth is (good), while the closer the colour of the cell is to red, the bigger the w/w growth / smaller the w/w drop is (bad).

The 'On ventilator / In hospital' ratio was falling constantly since May, although there was a spike in late August. The ratio has been steadily rising since mid-Sept and reached 1.9% a week ago, only to rather inexplicably drop to 1.1% last week and jump back to 1.8% by 25 Oct.

A total of 8,738 COVID-19 shots have been administered in Hungary over the reported period, up from 5,932, which also showed an increase from 4,824 a week earlier.

The seven-day rolling average of 4th doses jumped 47% to 1,038 and there was a 62% leap at 3rd doses (to 819 from 505), as well as at 1st doses (373 vs. 230), while the average of 2nd doses rose by only 8% (281 vs. 260).