Mortality from COVID-19 is record high and restrictions are being lowered

Hungary announced on Friday about the last 24 hours. 11,265 new infections were confirmed. This surpassed the daily growth record reached less than a week ago. The country also posted a new anti-death record, with 275 deaths last day. The jump in death statistics has placed Hungary in first place in terms of deaths per capita in the last two weeks.

“We are going through the most difficult weeks of the pandemic,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a radio station in an interview on Friday morning.

However, government officials are relaxing the restrictions currently in place in the country. In an interview on Friday, Orban announced that limited capacity would allow for non-food stores that are currently closed.

The opening hours of the stores will be extended by two hours, until 9 p.m., and the start of the curfew in force in the country from November will be delayed from 8 p.m. at 10 or 11 p.m., Orban said.

As of Friday, 1.8 million people in Hungary have already been vaccinated with COVID-19. people, it is one of the fastest vaccination rates in the European Union (EU).

This week, doctors called on the government to introduce stricter restrictions to reduce the unprecedented burden on hospitals, but their requests have not been honored.

There is a shortage of doctors and nurses in Hungary to care for a record number of COVID-19 patients. As a result, hospitals are forced to seek the help of volunteers without medical training.

The government should close supermarkets immediately, limit the number of shoppers allowed to operate in the stores and prohibit groups of more than three people, excluding family members, from meeting in public places, the Hungarian Medical Association said in a communicated on Monday.

The statement also calls on Hungarians to avoid residents’ favorite parks and refrain from staying with loved ones during the upcoming Easter holidays.