Restrictive steps have managed to slow the spread of coronavirus in Hungary but the “real test” is yet to come, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday. Orban said that at the peak of the crisis, Hungary would need about 8,000 ventilators and intensive-care hospital beds, of which around 2,000 would be available in “normal times.”
The statement came as the government reported the single biggest daily increase in infections. Hungary’s confirmed coronavirus cases have increased by 210 to 1,190, government data showed on Friday.
On Thursday, a nationwide lockdown was prolonged indefinitely to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The authorities asked citizens to observe the order despite the Easter holiday.
The crisis has presented Orban with the toughest challenge to his decade-long rule, Reuters said. Seventy-seven people have died so far, according to the government. Friday's jump in cases includes 151 infections in an old people’s home in Budapest, of whom seven people had died, the official tally showed.