The expected peak of the coronavirus epidemic in Hungary in early May may be prolonged, with “very many patients” next month, János Szlávik, chief infectologist of Budapest’s St. László Hospital, told public television late on Monday.
He added, however, that he hoped the epidemic will “run down” in June.
Currently, the number of cases is still on the increase, but Hungary has sufficient ventilator capacity “for the time being”, he said, adding that the death rate was not increasing.
Szlávik said that while in March coronavirus patients had only been treated in St. László’s, now many hospitals across the country have people with Covid-19, and several epidemiology centres were prepared to provide intensive care to such patients.
Szlávik could not guess the intensity of a second wave of the epidemic expected for the autumn, but said he hoped a vaccine would be available “by the autumn, winter, or next spring at the latest”.
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Isolating the elderly from younger people is crucial for prevention, Szlávik said. He called for concentrated efforts and continuous screening in seniors’ homes and said that prevention in those homes is key in avoiding a “huge, apocalyptic pandemic” such as the ones seen in some Western European countries.
Featured photo by Attila Kovács/MTI