Hungary reports biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases

Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban on Friday warned of lack of ventilators and intensive care hospital beds as his government reported the single biggest daily increase in coronavirus infections.

Cases in the country jumped by 210 to 1,190 over the past 24 hours, and the death toll rose to 77. The jump in cases included 151 infections in an old people’s home in the capital, Budapest, of which 7 people have so far died.

“It seems as if other countries are already peeking out, as if there was already light at the end of the tunnel. For now, I do not see this in Hungary. We have won time, we have been defending ourselves well, but the real test is yet to come”, Orban told the media.

“Hungary will need to have ramped up its stock of ventilators and intensive care hospital beds to 8,000 by the peak of the crisis”, he warned, adding that it usually had about 2,000 available in “normal times”.

Orban’s decision to rule by decree indefinitely as a measure against the virus has sparked criticism by the European Union.

On Thursday, Hungary extended the lockdown measures, and asked citizens to respect restrictions on free movement despite the Easter holiday weekend.