Hungary’s daily coronavirus death toll hits 38, a record

Fully 38 Covid-19 patients have died over the past 24 hours in Hungary — most of them elderly and suffering from an underlying illness — while 989 have been officially diagnosed with coronavirus, bringing the total number of registered infections to 48,757, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Tuesday.

The death toll has risen to 1,211, while 14,637 have made a recovery. There are 32,909 active infections and 1,960 Covid patients being cared for in hospital, 197 on ventilators.

Fully 24,780 people are in official home quarantine, and the number of tests has increased to 910,368.

Border controls and restrictions on entry are still in place, and Hungarians have been urged to forego any skiing holidays abroad.

Wearing face masks is obligatory in shops, on public transport and in cinemas, theatres, shopping malls, health-care and social-care facilities. Restaurants and entertainment venues must close after 11pm.

Also, a ban is in place on visits to hospitals and nursing homes.

Temperature measurements are taking place at school gates. Fully 46 kindergartens and 21 schools are under orders to suspend class teaching, while and digital education has been introduced for 153 classes and 17 schools.

Most registered infections are in Budapest (14,889), Pest County (6,244) and the counties of Győr-Moson-Sopron (3,000), and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén (2,715), followed by Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County (2,351). Tolna (504) has the fewest infections.

• The Hungarian COVID-19 infection rate resembles the European average

Latest count of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide

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, Oct. 20.

Country Confirmed Cases

World 40,348,737

U.S. 8,212,981
India 7,550,273
Brazil 5,250,727
Russia 1,406,667
Argentina 1,002,662
Spain 974,449
Colombia 965,883
France 952,600
Peru 868,675

Read alsoAustria limits private indoor gatherings to 6 people to curb virus spread

Source: MTI/Xinhua