Virologist warns Hungary could have 10,000 new COVID-19 cases per day
Unfortunately, the third wave in the coronavirus pandemic is on an upward trajectory and it will remain so for at least two more weeks, said Rusvai. The new lockdown measures implemented on Monday (8 March) will have an impact with a largely two-week delay, he added.
In view of various other statistics and data from other countries, the virologist expects the number of new daily COVID-19 cases to peak around 10,000. He remarked, however, that this is "less informative once again", considering that the positivity rate (i.e. the percentage of positive coronavirus tests) is still way above the World Health Organisation's (WHO) recommendation, which indicates that local authorities detect only a fraction, about 10% of the new infections.
The fact that in terms of deaths per population Hungary is ranked 9th in the world stems from the fact that the dramatic COVID-19 data in November-December 2020 ruined the country’s statistics and it has been unable to remedy it ever since.
Rusvai stressed that in order to put a halt to the spread of coronavirus a 70% herd immunity should be reached in Hungary. And in order to see a palpable improvement in the statistics, about half of that, i.e. 3.5 to 4.0 million people would need to be immune to the virus.
With more than one million people inoculated against COVID-19 with the first dose (their immunity will reach the highest level attainable with one shot in 10-14 days) and with those that actually gained immunity via infection we’re at around 25% of the population, said Rusvai.
“Our job right now is to make sure as many people as possible get immunity via inoculation rather than via infection,” he concluded.
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