Hungary in need of international help to treat Covid patients as hospitals get overloaded?

As Hungary enters the third wave of coronavirus, the country finds itself in a challenging situation. It is hard to tell for how long hospitals will be able to hold on before becoming completely overloaded without a single bed to spare.

According to János Szlávik, chief physician of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the South-Pest Centrum Hospital, the situation is dire. In an interview, he talked about their cases in the hospital, how

they are running out of beds reserved for coronavirus patients while more and more people need to be transferred to the ICU.

He also added that according to his information obtained from colleagues all over the country, the number of cases keep increasing while, in general, people suffer heavier from the infection, resulting in more people needing ventilation.

So far, a whole family having been infected and being sick together at the same time was quite rare. However, with the new variants of the virus that spread much quicker, it practically became normal, quotes telex.hu.

The British variant, for instance, as said Szlávik, spreads much faster and causes symptoms to be 10-15% more severe , which also explains the general increase of cases and the growing number of younger patients being admitted to the hospital.

As data on the whole of the Hungarian situation is relatively scarce,

we can not tell exactly where is the threshold of the Hungarian health care system, whether it is close to the verge of collapsing or there is still time left to make rapid and effective changes.

It makes it even harder to see a clear picture, as from time to time, doctors and nurses emerge and share their experience on social media about the scary and trying experience they have to endure. Sometimes they are backed by the hospital they work for, but in some cases, their employer establishment does not stand behind them, stating the same, or even deny such accusations.

Nevertheless, it is for sure that Hungarian numbers are quickly catching up to those of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is awful news as these two countries cannot tend appropriately to the most severe covid patients anymore. 444.hu reports that they simply gave up and tried to save their citizens’ lives by calling for international help. Germany, Poland and Switzerland came to their rescue; they already received over 200 patients from the two countries mentioned above, while Slovenia also offered their services.