Look, No Queues!
Deaths related to the Covid-19 virus surged to 1,196 last week, breaking the four figurethreshold for the first time and rising by 324, or 37%, on the 872 recorded in the last week of November.
A new daily record total of 189 who passed away on Friday, the majority old and suffering from chronic diseases, the government website states.
https://koronavirus.gov.hu/#/ A mobile testing station for the coronavirus
does not appear very busy in Vác yesterday.
Photo: Tom Chilton The cumulative deaths for the two weeks to today, December 6 means Hungary had 21.2 deaths per 100,000 population, the third worst death rate in the EU, with only Bulgaria (27.3 deaths per 100,000) and Slovenia (28.2), according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea Cases of recorded positive tests hit another new high of 38,751, although this represents only a 5% rise on the previous week. This leaves 172,728 actively suffering from Covid-19 in Hungary, 21,500, or 14% more than the previous week. A decision on the measures to apply following the restrictions due to expire on December 11, and what rules will apply during the Christmas holidays, is expected tomorrow, Viktor Orbán wrote on his Facebook last Thursday. Meanwhile, website hvg.hu has slammed the Hungarian Prime Minister as “mistaken” when he told listeners in his weekly interview on state radio on Friday that it was a “slap in the face” that Britain would commence mass vaccination of the UK population while nothing is happening in the European Union. Orbán claiming, that the British are more successful in fighting the epidemic because they left the European Union, is cited by hvg.hu as saying: “Now who is capable of action? The one who stayed in with Brussels, or the one who went their own way, seeking their own solution? The answer is that whoever quits, goes his own way, seeks his own solution, can protect the health and lives of their citizens sooner than we who have stayed in." However, hvg.hu says both the European Commission and the British Medical Association refuted the Hungarian Prime Minister, citing a tweet by Dana Spinant, deputy spokesperson of the Commission, who tweeted back: “The UK used EU rules to grant temporary authorisation to specific batches of the #COVID19 vaccine supplied by Pfizer & BioNtech, as the UK is still bound by those rules under the end of 2020. They allow swift action to authorise vaccines, while fully ensuring their safety.” Which is, as far as Perspectives-Budapest understands, exactly the same regulatory condition-cum-loop-hole that Hungary aims to exploit for using the Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine. Mind you, either a vaccine has been tested as safe, or it hasn't: so saying that this swift action is “authorised, while fully ensuring [citizens'] safety” is a bit of an oxymoron to me, whether the vaccine is Russian, US or otherwise developed. I wish everyone a safe week.
Living in the UK, I think the vaccine will be as safe as say flu vaccine - they are both covid viruses with much in common, which is why these vaccines have been developed so quickly. Given the risk of death or long term illness from Covid, I'll take my vaccine dose as soon as it's offerred! It has been thoroughly tested and checked but the tests have been done in parallel rather than in series.
It looks as though only a few people in the UK will receive their first dose before Christmas. You need a second dose after 21 days and then need another week to gain full immunity. This vaccine needs storage at -80C so is n…