MEP: Hungarian government was not prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic

Opposition MEP István Ujhelyi has criticised the handling of coronavirus-related data by Hungarian authorities during the pandemic, citing a report by data protection authority NAIH.

The government refused to release Covid data

Addressing an online press conference, Ujhelyi, a member of the European Parliament’s public health committee, noted that he had turned to NAIH almost a year ago after repeated refusals by government institutions to release data concerning coronavirus.

Citing a report released by NAIH, Ujhelyi said Hungarian authorities tasked with managing the pandemic had been unprepared for the amount of data they had to handle.

Only 9 people for the system, many errors

Ujhelyi said the National Centre for Public Health (NNK) had admitted that it had been difficult having the same staff members conducting contact tracing and validating data. He said NNK had just nine specialists capable of handling the infectious disease reporting system. Also, doctors and other health-care workers had to enter data into the system manually, which led to errors, he added.

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Chief medical officer was “unfit”

Coronavirus was overreported as a cause of death by more than 30 percent, the MEP said. It was even cited, for example, in the case of a patient who had contracted the virus but committed suicide, he added.

“The government was prepared for everything during the pandemic except the pandemic itself,” Ujhelyi said. He insisted that Cecília Müller had been “unfit” to carry out her duties as chief medical officer, and called on her to apologise for the way the data had been handled.

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Source: MTI