Coronavirus in Hungary: Registered cases exceed 1500, death toll rises to 122

54 Hungarian citizens tested positive for COVID-19 by Tuesday morning, bringing the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Hungary to 1512. 13 more patients died as well, the total number of fatalities as of Tuesday morning is 122, and the number of recoveries is the same, 122, the Hungarian government's coronavirus website reported.

The number of active cases is 1268, 15 333 people are in compulsory quarantine, and doctors have taken 35 825 samples for testing. According to the infection map published on the website, almost half of the cases, 732, are in Budapest, while surrounding Pest county is second with 220 registered cases.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced last Thursday that the stay-at-home order introduced at the end of March will be extended indefinitely with its necessity revised every week. The extension also granted mayors the power to introduce stricter rules in their municipalities over the four-day Easter weekend, many of whom closed parks, ordered obligatory mask-use in public spaces, or disallowed non-residents from entering their towns as Hungarian Easter traditions do not exactly go hand-in-hand with social distancing.

In his weekly interview on public radio on Friday, Orbán said Hungary would need 7500-8000 ventilators at the peak of the epidemic, while there are only 2000 such machines in the country, adding that a fifth of healthcare workers could become infected.

(Cover: István Huszti / Index)