The number of novel coronavirus test samples taken by the ambulance services tripled in recent days, the director of national ambulance service OMSZ said on Thursday.
The ambulances aim to visit everyone with symptoms or people who had been in close contact with infected persons within 24-48 hours, Gábor Csató told public radio Kossuth. Ambulance staff wearing protective clothing take nasal and throat swab samples and transport them to a laboratory, he added.
Additional patient transport organisations that receive public finances have also been involved in the work, similarly to the situation during the spring wave of the epidemic, he said.
Csató said ambulance staff in direct contact with infected persons have been successfully isolated, with merely 30 of the over 4,500 staff members contracting the virus since January 30.
Featured image illustration by György Varga/MTI
