Hungary could have 500 COVID-19 related deaths per day by the end of March, warned the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in a report published on March 11. This would bring the total death toll to over 40,000 by June.

COVID-19 has claimed 16,497 lives in Hungary as of March 11 compared to 10,000 at the beginning of the year and 5,000 by December 1. At the end of August there were just over 600 deaths.

The third wave hit Hungary in mid-February, and it quickly spiralled out of control before the government reacted. It was only in early March that the government tightened its lockdown until March 22. 

According to the latest data, Hungary reported 8,312 new cases on Thursday and 172 deaths. The seven-day moving average in death jumped from 70-80 from a month ago to over 150.

The number of victims per one million was the sixth highest in the world, according to Our World in Data, as Hungary has overtaken Italy in the ranking.

The number of people ventilators has also grown exponentially. In just three months, it increased from 300 to 911. The previous peak was in mid-December at 661. The number of people hospitalized also surged from 3,800 to 8,300 in four weeks.

The fast spread of the UK variant is blamed for the rising reproduction rate, which climbed from 0.8 in January to over 1.3. Health experts warn that more people in their 40s, 50s are admitted to the ICU and many had seen their health deteriorate rapidly.

The third wave has put Hungary’s healthcare under immense pressure and more and more hospitals are operating at their maximum capacity.

The government has suspended all elective surgeries and made drugs containing favipiravir available for subscriptions. The drug is believed to prevent symptoms from becoming more severe.

Hungary’s hospitals are also feeling the pain from the mass departure of doctors and nurses who did not sign the new contract that changed their legal status as of March 1.

The base salary of doctors will go up by 120% by 2023, but many will see a decline due to new overtime rules and the banning of a second job. An estimated 4,000-5,000 doctors and nurses left the public health sector this month.

Under pressure from opposition parties and to alleviate concerns over the use of the Chinese and Russian vaccines, the government has unveiled details of both contracts. According to details Hungary paid €17 for Sputnik V and €63 for two doses of Sinopharm. The EU is paying about €2 for AstraZeneca and €12 for Pfizer/BionTech per dose.

Hungary has become the first European Union member to use both drugs despite neither have received approval from the EU’s medicine regulator EMA.

Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has been a strong critic of the EU’s faltering vaccine rollout and his government turned to non-EU countries to buy enough Russian vaccine to inoculate 1mn people and a further 5mn doses of Chinese vaccine for 2.5mn people, even though it currently has no shortage of vaccines.

On Thursday Orban was present at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport for the arrival of the latest delivery of some 450,000 doses of the Chinese vaccine. 

The Hungarian PM has openly advocated the use of Sinopharm and he himself received the Chinese jab, although many have doubts about that, including former PM Ferenc Gyurcsany, leader of the opposition party DK.  

Hungary’s investigative site Atlatszo unveiled that the state bought the Chinese vaccines through a Hungarian broker called Danubia Pharma, an untransparent company once owned by a Vanuatu offshore company. The company won a HUF650mn (€1.8mn) EU tender in 2012 despite its widely known offshore affiliation.