Economy 19 November 2020, 9:56am

COVID-19 in Hungary: 4,512 new cases, 92 fatalities on Wednesday

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Hungarian authorities confirmed 4,512 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections on Wednesday, increasing the total since March to 161,461. The death toll rose to 3,472 after the virus claimed the lives of 92, mostly elderly or chronic, patients, while 36,345 people have recovered from the disease. The number of active cases is 121,644. There are currently 7,532 coronavirus patients in hospital, with 580 of them on ventilators, the official government website said.

The number of new cases is in line with the trend of recent days and suggests that the spread of the virus is not accelerating further, although it is also possible that testing capacities have hit another limit.

The number of fatalities was 92, similar to data form recent days. In theory, this means the spread of the virus stopped accelerating well before the lockdown was announced, which contradicts the position of the Operational Corps and most virus experts that the outbreak is in an exponential phase.

The number of people being treated in hospital continued to rise, while the number of people receiving artificial ventilation has stopped increasing. This indicates that less severe cases are also hospitalised, whereas news reports suggest that hospital capacities are nearly depleted and only the more severe cases are admitted.

More than 23,000 tests were applied in the past 24 hours, 20% of which came back positive. While an improvement from the 30% rates seen earlier, this still shows that the virus is spreading swiftly and without control in Hungary.

Meanwhile, although there are theoretically 120,000 active cases, with 67,000 new cases confirmed in the past 14 days, there are only 38,000 people in home quarantine and 7,500 in hospital. No information is available regarding the remaining cases.