Number of new infections slowly climbing up in Hungary

Two patients died of a Covid-related illness in the past 24 hours, while 526 new coronavirus infections were registered, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Thursday. Elderly people who have not accepted the coronavirus vaccine make up the majority of those hospitalised in the fourth wave of the pandemic in Hungary, the head infectologist of Budapest’s South Pest Central Hospital said on Thursday.

So far 5,869,259 people have received a first jab, while 5,600,425 have been fully vaccinated. Fully 667,000 Hungarians have received a booster jab. The number of active infections stands at 7,960, while hospitals are treating 411 Covid patients, 48 of whom need respiratory assistance. Since the first outbreak, 819,547 infections have been registered, while fatalities have risen to 30,145. Fully 781,442 people have made a recovery.

There are 5,495 people in official quarantine, while 6,844,088 tests have been officially carried out.

The fourth wave is not that strong in Hungary yet

“Half of those without vaccines read and spread misconceptions about the vaccine being harmful,” and are impossible to convince otherwise, János Szlávik told on public news channel M1. Groups trying to reach elderly citizens typically living alone in rural areas “are working to reach the other 50 percent”, he said.

Incentives like an immunity requirement to acces certain services may help that work,

he said.

Barring an effective medicine against Covid-19, “which needs at least two years to develop and so will be available next year at the earliest”, vaccines are the only effective way to combat the pandemic, Szlávik said, and called on parents to have their children inoculated to stop the spread of the virus.

Szlávik warned that the delta variant was much more infectuous than previous mutations.

While earlier variants spread to 3-4 people from one patient on average, the delta variant may infect as many as 7-8, he said.

Source: MTI