Over 3,500 Covid patients have died since the appearance of coronavirus in Hungary

Fully 96 Covid patients, mostly elderly and suffering from an underlying illness, have died in the past 24 hours and coronavirus infections have risen by 4,440 to 165,901, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Friday.

Altogether 3,568 Covid patients have died since the appearance of coronavirus in Hungary, while 38,074 have made a recovery. There are currently 124,259 active infections and 7,512 patients are in hospital, 604 on ventilators.

Fully 42,241 people are in official home quarantine, while the number of tests stands at 1,455,868.

Hungary is set to begin testing certain essential workers for coronavirus on a regular basis from Friday, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office has said, adding that the staff of social care homes will be the first to be tested.

The government last week decided that health-care workers, teachers and staff members of social institutions will be tested on a regular basis, determined by the operative board responsible for handling the epidemic, Gulyás told a regular press briefing on Thursday.

Testing will be voluntary, he added, emphasising that no one would be obliged to take the test.

Regarding the coronavirus vaccine, Gulyás said Hungary has contracted altogether 12 million doses, costing 36 billion forints (EUR 99.6m), from three manufacturers.

Fully 3,270,000 doses are contracted from British AstraZeneca, 4,360,000 doses from US company Janssen and 4,439,000 doses from Pfizer in addition to potential Chinese and Russian vaccine purchases now under negotiation, he said.

The government has a duty to procure any vaccine that has been duly tested and proven to be effective as quickly as possible, and so it is in talks with “every entity” potentially able to provide it, including the EU, Israel, the US, China and Russia, he said.

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Asked about the timeframe of the current restrictions and whether the government had any plans to tighten them, Gulyás said

the government had not discussed the implementation of tougher measures.

The cabinet will review the situation and the effectiveness of the restrictions currently in place at a meeting next Wednesday, he said.

“In a situation like this, no responsible government can decide on measures that would need to be taken in 2-3 weeks’ or a month’s time,” he said.

As things currently stand, he added, the government believed that the spread of the virus could be slowed if everyone complied with the current restrictions. At the same time, the government is ready to tighten restrictions if necessary, he said.

In response to a question, the PM’s chief of staff said

casinos are allowed to stay open because they are able to enforce social distancing rules. But like bars and restaurants, casinos must also close by 7pm, he added.

Concerning projections on when the epidemic was expected to peak, Gulyás said experts forecast case numbers cresting around December or January.

He said there were currently 7-8 coronavirus vaccines undergoing trials. Hungary is working to obtain “even the very first one” that becomes available so that it can begin carrying out its vaccination plan, he said, adding that innoculations would be voluntary and be made available to everyone free of charge.

Gulyás called it “unacceptable” that health-care workers treating Covid patients had not yet received their 50 percent pay rise, stressing that they were entitled to a higher salary. Rerad more details HERE: Scandal! Some Hungarian healthcare workers received only half of their salaries

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Source: MTI