Easing COVID-19 Lockdown, Record Number of Deaths

By Wednesday morning, another 311 Hungarian patients died of the complications of the new coronavirus infection – more than ever before in 24 hours. Still, the government decided to ease the lockdown restrictions and shops were allowed to open as of this Wednesday.

As the government site koronavirus.gov.hu reports, the majority of the 311 deaths were elderly and chronic patients, bringing the official number of deaths related to the new coronavirus infection to 22,409. According to official explanation published around noon on Wednesday, the high number of daily fatalities may have been caused by the accumulation of reports following the Easter holidays.

The number of new infections increased by 1,933, bringing the total number of identified infections to a total of 693,676 since the beginning of the epidemic. The number of people recovered is constantly increasing, currently standing at 419,152, but the number of active infections has already risen to 252,115. 12,202 coronavirus patients are cared for in hospitals, 1,407 of whom are on ventilators.

While Hungary features among the worst countries as far as the number of pandemic-related fatalities is concerned, it is second in the EU vaccination rankings. 25% of the Hungarian population has already been inoculated with either EMA-approved vaccines or with those from Russia and China. After the number of vaccinees exceeded 2.5 million on Tuesday, although, under strict epidemiological measures, shops and services may open and curfew is postponed to 22 hours. However, catering establishments remain closed and can only sell food for takeaway. Hotels are are still closed to tourists.