The disaster management authority has prepared a plan to increase the number of hospital beds, a “plan we will probably not need,” the prime minister’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás told a news briefing. Regarding the inoculation campaign, Gulyás said it was imperative to “get vaccines from wherever we can”, adding that Hungary’s inoculation rate is currently second only to Malta in the European Union.
Vaccinating the elderly and those living with chronic illness remains a priority, he said. “If we are fast enough with inoculations and have a large number of people registered to receive a jab, we can avoid a fourth wave,” he said.
Gulyás said the government wanted to reopen the country gradually, and would tie the specific stages of reopening to the degree of inoculation. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday will consult with the operative body responsible for handling the epidemic and announce plans and measures for the upcoming period in his regular Kossuth Rádió interview later that morning, Gulyás said. During reopening, the government will consider the results of its recent National Consultation survey, Gulyás said. The survey will conclude on Friday, with the results announced over the weekend, he added.
On the topic of vaccination certificates, Gulyás said 1,440,000 certificates had already been manufactured and 1,260,000 mailed to those already vaccinated. Hungary’s population is expected to be fully inoculated against the coronavirus by May or June this year, he said. All vaccines delivered to Hungary are being used within a week, unless they have to be set aside to be used as second jabs, he said. The timing of second jabs is subject to rigorous regulations, and the serum has to be stocked until another delivery arrives to ensure compliance, he said.
Regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine which was suspended in several countries due to reports of dangerous side effects, Gulyás noted the World Health Organization had said the AstraZeneca vaccine was reliable. “Hopefully, the European Medicines Agency’s statement on Thursday [on the vaccine’s examination] will end the uncertainties,” he said, adding that AstraZeneca “seems to provide protection without causing complications.” Although the serious conditions reportedly connected to the vaccine should be examined carefully, the incidents were so few that causality could not be determined, he said, adding that Hungarian health authorities were also examining the vaccine. Hungary is engaging in talks “with every supplier that can deliver vaccines by April or May”. The details will be published only after the contracts have been signed, he said. Meanwhile, China has delivered vaccines ahead of schedule, and the “the Russians promised to make up for the February delay by the end of March.”
Gulyás said that thanks to the inoculation campaign and other factors, caseload is expected to fall drastically after the third wave. Half of those above the age of 65 who have registered for the vaccine have already been inoculated, he said. Further, while the registered number of infections is around 500,000 in Hungary, latent cases may be 4 to 10 times that number, he said. Some estimates put the number of people who have gained immunity by recovering from the virus at five million, he said.
Asked about Hungary’s number of free hospital beds, Gulyás said there was no serious shortage of beds in any part of the country. Because the British variant of the virus made its way to Hungary from Slovakia, it is the northern part of the country that is seeing a higher caseload and where hospitals have fewer beds available, he said. The National Hospital Directorate-General is monitoring the status of hospital capacities “on almost a minute-to-minute basis” and is directing ambulances based on its findings, Gulyás said. Hungary at this point has more than 10,000 free hospital beds, he said, citing expert projections that the number of patients being cared for in hospital was expected to peak at 14,000-15,000. Should the actual number of hospitalisations exceed those numbers, Hungary’s disaster management authority has a strategy for overseeing the care of up to 20,000 patients at a time, he added.
Asked why hospital directors were not free to discuss what happens in Covid-19 units, Gulyás said he was seeing “more doctors and hospital leaders give public statements than ever before”. He added, however, that it would be wrong for TV stations “to make the work in hospitals more difficult with their disaster tourism”. He said it was not true that hospital patients were being ranked according to their chances of survival, only that they were being “ranked” in terms of whether or not their symptoms required them to be placed on a ventilator. Gulyás slammed as “lies” claims that general practitioners were given instructions as to which of their patients should be given which vaccine.
hungarymatters.hu
