The number of infected persons is rising at an even rate, the chief medical officer said at the Tuesday online press conference of the Operational Group responsible for the containment of the coronavirus epidemic.

Cecilia Muller said a significant number of infected persons are from social institutions as well as from hospitals where infected persons are being treated. Therefore, we must pay special attention to closed communities, she pointed out.

She said the capital and Pest County continue to account for the highest number of patients, while in the rest of the counties the number of infected persons typically starts rising when the virus strikes closed communities and the disease starts spreading.

The chief medical officer highlighted that at present there are 2,649 infected persons, while the number of the deceased has risen to 291. 976 persons are receiving treatment in hospital; 49 of them require assisted ventilation. She added that 516 persons had already recovered from the disease.

According to her information, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported work on a new rapid test which is based on detecting the presence of the genetic material of the virus.

She said the test which is still in an experimental phase is important because most of the rapid tests used so far detect the presence of antibodies produced against the virus. However, in many cases, the production of antibodies only begins two weeks after infection. The new test will facilitate the modelling of the epidemic and the testing of the population for infection.

She mentioned that exposure research would also begin in Hungary whose purpose it was to determine the actual rate of infection among the population. Having this information is essential before a possible second wave of the epidemic.

Source and photo: Kormany.hu