Economy 18 March 2021, 9:26am

COVID-19 in Hungary: More than 200 fatalities in 24 hours

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Hungarian authorities confirmed 6,502 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the past 24 hours and there were 207 coronavirus-related fatalities, the official government website said Thursday morning. The latter is a sad new record as daily deaths rose above 200 for the first time.

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In the past 24 hours, 6,502 people were diagnosed with coronavirus infection, bringing the total since the outbreak began a year ago to 539,080.

There were 26,498 tests applied in the past 24 hours with a positivity rate of 24.5%, roughly in line with the past week’s average.

We have seen a relatively low number of new cases in the previous two days as the results of the fewer tests on Sunday and the 15 March holiday came in. Based on this, it was to be expected that today’s figure would be higher.

Meanwhile, this week’s case numbers increasingly reflect infections after the 8 March introduction of the latest lockdown measures, which means we should see a slow decrease in daily figures.

The disease claimed the lives of 207 patients, most of them elderly or chronic. This is the first time daily fatalities rose above 200 in Hungary, setting a new record. The coronavirus death toll now stands at 17,628.

The number of people in hospital and on ventilators is still rising. At present, 10,368 coronavirus patients require hospital treatment and 1,170 are on artificial ventilation, up by 102 and 42, respectively.

The number of people vaccinated against COVID has reached 1,441,706, and 421,915 people have already received the second dose of the vaccine as well. The numbers increased by 44,000 and 15,000 yesterday.

14.8% of the population has now received at least one dose of a vaccine and 4.3% got both. As for the vaccination schedule, the registered elderly remain a priority, the government website said.