Economy 9 April 2021, 10:05am

COVID-19 in Hungary: 7,325 new cases, 285 dead

Portfolio

Hungarian authorities confirmed 7,325 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections in the past 24 hours, and there were 285 coronavirus-related fatalities, the official government website said Friday morning. Both numbers are high compared to recent days, but the long Easter weekend makes it hard to evaluate trends just yet.

The number of new cases is the highest for the past six days, but as the figure was even higher last Friday, the declining trend of the seven-day moving average has not broken. Based on this, it appears that the spread of the virus is slowing in Hungary, but it is impossible to tell by how much. It is very likely that this slowing is less considerable than shown by the pandemic curve, as the low testing numbers of the long weekend have strongly influenced the data. The picture should be clearer by next week, before the effect of the current loosening measures become evident in virus statistics.

There are currently 11,363 coronavirus patients in hospital, with 1,364 of them on ventilators. Both numbers are on a falling trend, even though the number of people receiving artificial ventilation increased slightly yesterday.

Due to the delay inherent in pandemic dynamics, the number of fatalities is still not clearly decreasing. This is the last statistic that will show the spread of the virus is slowing, and the 285 dead yesterday confirm that Hungary is still not at that point. Meanwhile, the steep rising trend seen in late March has broken, which gives cause for cautious optimism.

The number of tests applied in the past 24 hours was nearly 36,000, a relatively high number. However, the fact that one in five came back positive indicates that detection efficiency remains low.

As of yesterday, 2,689,102 people have been vaccinated (slightly fewer than the 2.7 million the prime minister mentioned Friday morning), and 1,126,139 people have already received both doses. Some 81,000 people received a first shot yesterday, the second highest number this week after the previous day’s record of more than 100,000. Vaccination uptake is now at 27% in Hungary. This, of course, does not mean that more than one in four Hungarians are now protected, as the vaccine takes several days to offer even minimal protection, and full immunity only comes after the second dose.