Economy 5 March 2021, 8:30am

COVID-19 in Hungary: 6,369 new cases, 143 dead

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Hungarian authorities confirmed 6,369 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases on Thursday, there were 143 coronavirus-related fatalities, nearly 7,000 people are being treated in hospital, and 677 of them are on ventilators, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday morning on public radio. All of these are at or near record highs, indicating that the third wave will reach higher than the previous two.

The 6,369 new cases exceeded even the previous day’s figure, which was a major jump compared to earlier data. Even in the second wave, only three daily figures were higher.

Considering the current state of the pandemic curve ad the fact that the tighter lockdown will only enter force on Monday, we can say that the government has been even later in introducing measures than during the second wave.

There are now 6,867 people in hospital and 677 on ventilators. The latter is an absolute record in Hungary, and both numbers are rising swiftly. According to Orbán, 15,000 to 20,000 people could simultaneously require hospital treatment at the peak of the third wave, which will place a huge strain on Hungary’s health care system. As a reminder, the official peak figure was 8,000 during the second wave, and unofficial estimates were still below 10,000 at peak load.

The disease claimed 143 lives yesterday, slightly fewer than the day before but more than the past week’s average. The curve is rising steeply, and considering the number of new infections and severe cases, a further increase is unfortunately to be expected.