From Tuesday on, the Government Information Center will publish detailed information on the patients who have died in Hungary after having contracted the coronavirus. According to the data published on the koronavirus.gov.hu website, all but one of the patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus infection had underlying conditions.
According to the website, the majority who died were male and older than 70 years of age. The youngest person to die of the disease was 37, while the oldest was 94. All patients had other chronic and underlying conditions including cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart, and circulatory diseases.
From today, in addition to the sixteen patients who died so far, the website is showing the age, gender, and underlying health conditions of those who have died of the disease.
Cecília Müller, the National Chief Medical Officer emphasized several times at the operational board’s daily press briefings that it is important to note that elderly people and especially those with chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart, and circulatory diseases are at increased risk for the coronavirus infection, and may have more severe symptoms, and are more likely to be in need of intensive care.
She said that all patients who died – with the exception of one – were in very bad conditions because of their underlying chronic diseases, and “the coronavirus infection just put the final dot on the I.”
Although the website shows the underlying diseases, age, and gender of those who passed away, the public is yet to receive other important data on those infected with the disease. Unlike Hungary, almost all European countries report regional data on confirmed coronavirus infections, while many of them even show the age and gender of those who tested positive.
The operative board has so far rejected the idea to indicate in which counties and cities the confirmed patients live. Müller justified this by respecting patients’ personal rights and saying it would not be appropriate for a patient to be tracked based on their “sensitive, personal medical data.”
Despite repeated requests from the press and the public, Hungarians have so far not been able to find out more information about the patients, except some individual cases revealed by Müller in the usual operational board press briefings.
However, according to the operational board’s official information page, koronavirus.gov.hu, in addition to the age, gender, and chronic underlying disease(s) of those who passed away, the “county data on identified coronavirus infections will also be reported shortly.”
At the same time, the operational board noted that the actual number of coronavirus infections can be up to several times more than the number of identified coronavirus infections indicated on the official page. They also emphasized the importance of following the recommended hygienic and curfew rules.
featured photo: MTI/Szigetváry Zsolt