Hungary needs more doctors and nurses to tend to Covid patients, the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said, calling on the government to turn to the international community for aid.
The number of hospitalised Covid patients and people on a ventilator is now higher than at any other time during the pandemic, DK spokesman Balázs Barkóczi told an online press conference. Several hospitals are full-up, he said. “Reserves are depleted,” he said, adding that even though there may be a surfeit of equipment, there were not enough doctors and nurses to operate it. “Hungary’s health-care system has reached its limits,” Barkóczi said. “Now’s not the time for government self-praise or false victory reports.”
In some hospitals, he said, doctors had to decide which patients to put on a ventilator based on their chance of survival. “A responsible government does not worry about saving face instead of applying for international aid,” he said. Saving lives must be the only priority without considerations of “prestige, pride, or popularity”, he added.
In response, ruling Fidesz said that the “anti-vaxxer opposition is once again attacking the ones involved in defence and stirring up distrust in vaccines”. “[Ex-premier Ferenc] Gyurcsány’s party is prepared to endanger the life of Hungarians to come to power,” it said.
hungarymatters.hu
