COVID-19: Nearly 2,000 new cases, 118 deaths
The number of new daily confirmed COVID-19 cases was last this high six days ago and it has been rising for three days in a row. Fortunately, at around 2,000 the number of new cases is still way less than at the peak of the second wave in the pandemic, but is still considered high. The number of new daily cases has not been declining significantly since the end of December; we see stagnation at best. The daily reports continue to show high volatility in the data.
The mortality situation shows a similar pattern, with no major drop since end-Dec. 118 people have succumbed to the disease yesterday, up from 95 a day earlier. 106 Hungarians have died of coronavirus-related diseases on average in the past seven days.
There were fewer severe cases yesterday, but five more people required artificial ventilation. There were 4,689 people in hospital and 344 on ventilators as of Wednesday night.
Authorities performed a relatively high number of tests over the past 24 hours, 19,634, which beats the 7-day average, although we need to highlight that there were days with merely 8,000 tests that weighs down on the average. What gives reason for concern, though, is that despite the many samples tested the positivity rate is back around 10%. This indicator provides a clear picture of the underdetection of cases, but, of course, data for a single day should not be the basis of far-reaching conclusions.
Cover photo: Getty Images
