Hungary’s rapidly improving epidemiological data shown in May continued in the past month along with an even more dynamic decline of Covid related statistics. Looking at the current figures, it is clear that the coronavirus epidemic in Hungary has been completely halted, and despite the easing of most restrictions and the ongoing European football championship partly hosted in the capital, no negative changes have been observed.
Hungary’s Chief Medical Officer Cecília Müller declared at the beginning of June that the third wave had officially ended in Hungary. Indeed, looking at the past month’s Covid data, it’s hard to believe that just a few months ago Hungary was one of the countries most heavily hit by the pandemic.
Similarly to May, the country’s Covid related trends showed a significant improvement with a sharp decline in all key figures, including the number of patients treated in hospitals, on ventilators, and in terms of mortality rates.
On the 1st of June, 174 new infections were registered, which then showed a steady decline. By the end of the month, the number had fallen by about a third (from 174 to 52). As a result of the low rate of newly discovered infections in the country, Hungary was given a green rating on the ECDC’s epidemiological map last month (along with countries in the Central and Eastern European region and some Northern European countries.)
The data regarding active infections also showed positive trends. While the number of active infections has been constantly decreasing since mid-April, in June, the significant decline continued, falling to a half of the figure at the beginning of the month (from 71,000 to 39,000).
The statistics remained similarly positive for perhaps the two most important indicators as well. While 947 patients were hospitalized on June 1st with 100 of them on ventilators, by the end of the month the number of hospital admissions fell to an 8th of that, with 126 Covid patients recorded.
Fortunately, the sharp decline in the number of deaths that started in May continued last month as well. In a steady decline from the 28 coronavirus-related deaths recorded at the beginning of the month, “only” 4 people lost their lives at the end of the month.
Although, during the third Covid wave, Hungary became the country with the highest number of total deaths relative to its population in the world, the latest mortality figures are extremely favorable, even from a global and European perspective.
In recent months, Hungary has also become the EU member state to have inoculated the most citizens per capita. Although the country’s lead has since shrunk considerably, the vaccination rate is slowly reaching 5.5 million, which means that more than 55% of the population have received at least their first Covid shot.
If we look at the proportion of the population that has been fully vaccinated, we see an even better result. In a European comparison, Hungary’s vaccination coverage of almost 51% is well above the EU average, ahead of countries such as Germany and the UK.
Featured photo illustration by Tibor Rosta/MTI
