BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary is entering its toughest period since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and over the next two weeks hospitals will come under pressure like never before, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday.
“I have only bad news,” Orban said in a Facebook video. “We are facing the most difficult two weeks since the outbreak of the pandemic. The number of infections is rising sharply and will continue to rise due to the new mutations.”
Hungary reported 4,385 new infections on Thursday, the highest number this year.
The Hungarian government has extended a partial lockdown until March 15, Orban’s chief of staff said earlier in the day.
The next two weeks would be “extremely difficult,” Gergely Gulyas told a government briefing, adding that the pace of vaccinations would accelerate after Hungary began introducing the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine on Wednesday.
He said Orban is expected to receive a Sinopharm shot next week.
Hungary, with a population of about 10 million, had reported 414,514 cases since the start of the pandemic, with 14,672 dead.
So far, just over half a million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine.
All high schools have been closed since November 11, as have hotels and restaurants, with the exception of take-out, a 1900 GMT curfew is in effect and all gatherings are prohibited.
Hungary became the first country in the European Union to start vaccinating people with Sinopharm injections on Wednesday after it rolled out Russia’s Sputnik V as part of its vaccination campaign. The Chinese and Russian vaccines have not received regulatory approval in the EU.
These injections are now being administered in conjunction with the Pfizer-BioNTech, vaccine and injections developed by the American company Moderna and the Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca.
Willingness to receive a vaccine is on the rise, according to the statistics bureau, with 40% saying they plan to receive a vaccine in mid-February and 26% saying they would.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves; edited by Alison Williams, Nick Macfie, Alexandra Hudson)