Economy 2 March 2021, 10:40am

COVID-19 in Hungary: 2,764 new cases, 130 fatalities on Monday

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There were 2,764 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections confirmed in Hungary yesterday, increasing the total since last March to 435,689. There were 130 coronavirus-related fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 15,188. While the fewer than 3,000 new cases appear to be a marked improvement compared to previous days, it should be noted that Tuesday’s numbers are generally lower than the average due to the weekend effect. Meanwhile, the number of people treated in hospital rose sharply in 24 hours and is now above 6,000.

The low number of new cases compared to preceding days was due to the lower number of people seeking medical help during weekends, leading to lower test numbers. As the graph below shows, troughs, generally on Tuesdays, are typically followed by peaks.

The number of new cases was still 59%, or more than 1,000, higher than a week ago.

The most concerning news of the day is the high number of severe cases treated in hospital, which rose by nearly 400 in a day. There was only a single time when this number increased more in a day and that was back during the second wave. The number of people on ventilators rose by 44.

The disease claimed the lives of 130 Hungarian citizens in the past 24 hours. The trend is rising on the fatality curve as well, and no respite is to be expected in coming weeks.

The weekend factor is also evident in the number of tests applied, as the 2,764 new cases came from just 13,000 tests. This is another typical Tuesday feature as the average number of tests was 23,000 over the past seven days. The positivity rate was 21%, indicating a high number of undetected cases nationwide. (The rate peaked at around 30% during the second wave.) As shown below, the trend is rising steeply and Hungary’s health care system may come under substantial pressure in a few days.

Vaccination is continuing in Hungary: 721,677 people have received the first dose of a vaccine and 252,847 got the second shot as well. This means that 36,400 people were vaccinated yesterday. Vaccination coverage is increasing faster since Hungary bought vaccines from Russia and China, but is still only at 7.4% for the first shot and 2.59% for the second one. As the Operational Corps is now postponing second shots to reach more people with the first one, this gap will open further. The updated vaccination plan will be announced today.