Slavic: It is not known when the third wave will peak

It is only extremely difficult to estimate when the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic will peak and when the number of cases will start to decrease, the chief infectious physician of the South Pest Central Hospital told the public media on Saturday.

János Slavik said the number of people infected in the third wave is rising at a much higher rate than during the first and second waves: far more people are hospitalized in intensive care units, the number of newly registered patients has been steadily high in recent days.

According to the chief physician, this predicts that the third wave will be more severe than the previous ones. He indicated that the British mutation of the coronavirus is also dominant in Hungary, which is much more contagious, infects young people, can cause more severe clinical symptoms and can cause more people to die from the infection.

So it is definitely a more serious epidemic and we see that in the numbers as well

He pointed out.

He added that it is becoming more and more common for young people to be hospitalized who do not have an underlying disease, so now the emphasis is even more on protection, adherence to epidemiological rules.

János Slavik called it good news that the level of vaccination among the elderly is constantly rising. This is good because anyone who has received at least the first vaccine is less likely to be hospitalized or intensive care, the infectologist explained.

I believe that the virus must be fought by all means, and as soon as a new therapeutic device comes to Hungary, we will try to give it to the right people as soon as possible.

– he emphasized, adding that this was the practice of the so-called monoclonal antibody therapy, which was already used in the first patients in Hungary.

This therapy can be given to those who are still in the early stages of infection, but the disease can be expected to get worse because of their pre-existing underlying disease. These patients can receive one hour of intravenous antibody therapy to prevent them from being hospitalized, said János Slavik.

He pointed out that so far more than 40 patients have received such therapy, only two of them have been hospitalized, so this can also reduce the workload of health care institutions.

An antiviral drug called favipiravir has been reported to give the best results when given to people who are in the early stages of infection.

In this case, when used for five to ten days, this medicine shortens the course of the disease, reduces the amount of virus excreted and, in some cases, prevents the person from being hospitalized.

The chief doctor explained.

János Slavik indicated that more than ten thousand boxes of favipiravir have been prescribed by GPs in recent days. He also said more than 300 million vaccines have been administered worldwide against the coronavirus, a number so high that serious side effects may be suspected. These should, of course, be investigated, but the chief physician considers that none of the vaccines available in Hungary have a fact that would necessitate discontinuation of vaccination.

He said the current vaccination situation was not yet enough to have a substantial impact on the epidemic, so he encouraged everyone to register with the government for the vaccine. According to János Slavik, it still takes a few more weeks to reach the 2-3 million vaccination rate, which may already have a small effect on the course of the epidemic, but 60-70 percent of the population must be vaccinated to stop the epidemic.