Coronavirus – Chief medical officer: Hungary has seen a rise in confirmed Covid-19 cases but…

Hungary has seen a rise in confirmed Covid-19 cases but it has averted a surge thanks to the nationwide curfew imposed on Saturday, the chief medical officer said on Monday.

The curfew will continue to be effective in preventing the virus from spreading, Cecília Müller told an online news conference after a meeting of the operative board coordinating the response to the epidemic.

Hungary is still at the stage of group infections spread in communities with a roughly even distribution of cases across the country, she said, adding that no dense clusters had been identified in any given area.

The number of confirmed cases is rising steadily, she said, adding that Hungary was “on the brink of mass infections”.

So far, Hungary has reported 15 deaths out of 447 confirmed coronavirus cases, Müller said, adding that 15 are in intensive care. More than 13,300 samples have been tested, she said.

In response to a question, she said the National Ambulance Service has made additional ambulances available for testing suspected coronavirus patients in their homes. She noted that positive tests carried out by private laboratories were not being counted among the official number of confirmed cases.

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Asked about the coronavirus infection at a nursing home in Nagymagócs, in southern Hungary, she said no new cases have been detected at the home since the seven cases that were confirmed on Sunday. The patients are being treated in the nearby town of Szentes and the nursing home has been disinfected, she added.

Róbert Kiss, an official of the emergency centre set up by the operative board coordinating the response to the epidemic, told the same news conference that

the authorities have registered 739 irregularities concerning the curfew.

So far, the authorities have issued warnings to 660 people and fined 15 for violating the restrictions, he said.

The authorities have ordered home quarantine in over 9,000 cases so far and have conducted more than 57,000 inspections, Kiss said.

Altogether 97 people have been fined for violating quarantine rules and 14 people have been issued warnings. The authorities have filed misdemeanor charges against 163 people, he said.

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Source: MTI