Hungary records highest daily death toll in this year – March 10, 2021

Fully 179 patients, generally elderly with an underlying condition, died over the past 24 hours, and 5,653 new coronavirus infections were officially registered, while 1,107,791 people had received their first jab by Wednesday, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Wednesday.

The number of infections has risen to 480 860, while the death toll has increased to 16,325. The number of recoveries stands at 340,844.

There are 123,691 active infections, while hospitals are caring for 8,348 Covid patients, 844 of whom are on ventilators.

Fully 42,362 people are in official home quarantine, while the number of tests carried out has increased to 3,922,530.

Most infections have been registered in Budapest (91,257) and Pest County (63,759), followed by Győr-Moson-Sopron (27,438) Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén (27,279), and Hajdú-Bihar counties (26,432). The county least affected by the infection is Tolna (10,696).

Hungarian hospitals under strain from COVID-19 surge

COVID-19 admissions are putting Hungary’s hospital system under increasing strain and infections are expected to rise further in coming days as the variant first identified in Britain spreads, the surgeon general said on Tuesday.

Cecília Müller said numbers of hospitalised COVID-19 patients reached 8,270 on Tuesday to exceed a December second-wave peak.

“The pandemic situation is very serious in Hungary,” she told a briefing.

With the third coronavirus wave sweeping Central Europe, Czech Republic has asked Germany, Poland and Switzerland to take in patients, while Slovakia is also struggling to cope.

Germany, meanwhile, is cautiously easing lockdown curbs.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday he expected hospitalisations to rise to 15,000-20,000, adding that the health care system should be able to cope without external help.

According to data he cited in February, Hungary has 2,296 beds equipped with ventilators, and over 15,800 ready to receive COVID-19 patients.

Orbán’s government has tried to avoid a tough lockdown to prevent a repeat of the deep recession that followed spring 2020 curbs, but it toughened restrictions on Monday, extending a night-time curfew and closing all schools and most shops.