COVID-19 cases in Hungary top 3,000

A further 11 elderly people have died in Hungary, bringing the total number of deaths to 351, while the number of registered novel coronavirus infections has increased by 37 to 3,035, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Monday morning.

Fully 630 people treated for the virus in hospital have recovered, while a total of 1,027 patients are still hospitalised, 55 of whom are on ventilators.

Currently 10,459 people are under official home quarantine, while the number of tests carried out stands at 83,958.

The virus is still being spread in the community through personal contact, though the authorities are preparing for mass infections.

The most cases are in Budapest (1,484 people), followed by Pest County (401), Fejér county (304) and Komárom-Esztergom County (137).

Vas County (14) has the lowest number of infections in Hungary.

Infectologist: Knowledge on virus growing

János Szlávik, the lead infectologist of Budapest’s South Pest Hospital Centre, said on Sunday that the past two months have yielded valuable information on SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Speaking at the online press conference of the operative board coordinating the epidemic response, Szlávik said doctors are now aware of a multitude of atypical symptoms the virus can cause in the elderly, while children go through the infection virtually without symptoms.

Mutations of the virus have so far not affected its basic characteristics, he said.

Regarding treatments of Covid-19, Szlávik said doctors are strengthening patients’ immune systems and using general anti-viral therapies. Patients in a grave condition are treated with the blood plasma of those recovered, he said.

“There is promising news” on “one or two vaccines” being possibly available by September, Szlávik said.

Latest count of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide at 0500 GMT, May 4

The following are the latest updates on the COVID-19 global confirmed cases in hardest-hit countries by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University at 0500 GMT, May 4.

Country Confirmed Cases

World 3,507,053

U.S. 1,158,041
Spain 217,466
Italy 210,717
Britain 187,842
France 168,925
Germany 165,664
Russia 134,687
Turkey 126,045
Brazil 101,826
China 84,400

Read latest news on Coronavirus in Hungary.

Source: MTI/Xinhua