At the Tuesday online press conference of the Operational Group responsible for the containment of the coronavirus epidemic, the Chief Medical Officer described the maintenance of “disease control alertness” as of paramount importance.

Cecília Müller said the epidemic “has taken a very favourable turn in Hungary; at the same time, we must not lose sight for a moment of the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing around the world, the number of infections is still rising significantly in a number of countries,” and the number of fatalities is also on the increase. “Therefore, we must continue to maintain a state of disease control preparedness, a state of alertness”; there is no way of knowing how the epidemic situation will develop in neighbouring countries and around the whole world, and the virus is still present in Hungary as well.

The Chief Medical Officer said it is extremely good news that in the past 24 hours the number of infections has only risen by one, and on the whole two and a half times as many people have recovered as the number of active patients currently registered in the country. She said so far 2,516 persons have recovered from the infection, and the number of the victims of the virus has risen by two to 565. The number of active patients has fallen to below one thousand, to 996, and 255 persons are being treated in hospital, including 17 requiring assisted ventilation.

The first wave of the epidemic has effectively come to a conclusion in Hungary, and in the past few days there has been no meaningful change in the main indicators, Ms. Müller said in evaluation.

She also highlighted that during the summer holidays it is a problem for many parents to organise supervision for their children, and it is therefore a good idea for families to prepare plans. If the grandparents have no illnesses that would put them in a particularly high-risk category from the viewpoint of the virus and the children are healthy, grandparents can look after them.

Regarding camps, she said, in addition to the usual “challenges” of the summer, in camps special attention must be paid to the personal hygiene of children and the prevention of accidents.

The Chief Medical Officer asked people who decide to travel abroad to thoroughly inform themselves about the rules in force in the given country from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade or the World Health Organization (WHO) and to take out insurance. Before visiting countries affected by tropical diseases, visitors would do well to consult the international vaccination centre of the National Centre for Public Health and to obtain the necessary vaccines, she added.

In answer to a question, Ms. Müller highlighted that the coronavirus, similar to the flu virus, is capable of a high degree of mutation; researchers have already identified multiple coronaviruses in Hungary.

(MTI/Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)