Hungary daily COVID-19 cases double over a week
Before going into details, take a look at how August 2021 compares with August 2020 in the coronavirus pandemic. Note that a year ago there were no vaccines, and no Delta variant, either.
The latest data attest that the spread of coronavirus continues to accelerate in Hungary. The 82 new cases found after the long weekend compare with 45 people diagnosed with COVID-19 a week ago.
As of Monday night there were 81 people in hospital with COVID-19, 11 of whom required mechanical ventilation.
The chart below shows the 7-day rolling averages of COVID-19 patients in hospitals as a percentage of active cases (distorted, given that the records of active cases does not keep track of the actual number of people with COVID-19, and there has recently been a drastic reclassification from active status to recovered), and those on ventilators as a percentage of those in hospitals, which has been hovering in range between 14% and 16% for a month.
Here are four more charts with the absolute number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and on ventilators, as well as two ratios (COVID-19 cases in hospital / Active cases, and COVID-19 cases on ventilator / Cases in hospital.) The left-hand and the right-hand charts belong together, but while the top ones depict a longer period of two months weeks, the bottom ones show changes over the past three weeks.
Two people died of coronavirus-related diseases over the past 24 hours. The trend is also ascending here, albeit not dramatically (yet).
The number of tests performed over the long weekend was revised upwardly during the day yesterday by 6,373. At first, the official government portal probably did not take into consideration that it was a three-day weekend, and had to add the number of tests for Thursday normally reported on Friday morning. The positivity rate rose further to 1.53% from 1.09%.
Briefly about the test positivity rate: when a pandemic wave is on the rise, the shorter the daily averages are (columns), the higher they spike over the longer averages (lines). So, when the virus is spreading more rapidly, the top of these columns will be above the lines, and when a pandemic is in retreat, the columns end below the lines. When they are largely at the same level, there are the the turnarounds in the trend.
The pink line is the 3-day average positivity rate divided by the 21-day positivity rate (right-hand scale). If this rise over 100%, it signals the start of a new wave. When it's under 100%, the pandemic is receding. The jumps indicate dramatic and abrupt changes. (Read more about these here.)
Only 4,632 people got their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine yesterday, taking the total to over 5.7 million, while over 5.5 million have been fully vaccinated. The official government portal said 200,000 people have been administered their third doses so far.
The rate of vaccinations is extremely slow. Israel, a nation with a similar population as Hungary, is currently experiencing a surge in new COVID-19 cases, while nearly 64% of the population are vaccinated.
Authorities in Israel confirmed 9,831 new COVID-19 cases out of more than 150,000 tests performed on Monday (compare this with Hungary's 5,355 tests performed yesterday), the highest since January and close to the daily peak of 10,118 during the third wave. This means the pandemic is still raging in the country despite relatively high vaccination coverage and tight measures, but at least the reproduction rate of the virus is now beginning to drop to the crucial level of 1.
Cover photo: Getty Images
