COVID peaking + new flu variants to hit Hungary

Experts say that we should expect a severe flu epidemic because of the current moderate epidemic measures and the new variants that have appeared since last year. The good news is that there are multiple vaccines against the flu in Hungary. They can be administered two weeks after the Covid-19 jabs. MTI reported that 215 patients died of a Covid-related illness during the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, 7,310 new coronavirus infections were registered, koronavirus.gov.hu said on Thursday.

New flu variants evolved in Asia

According to experts talking to Magyar Nemzet, 15-20 pc of the population gets the flu virus regularly. Last year, this rate was 0, but

the prognosis for 2021 says that the ratio will be around 30-40%.

That is because, last year, there was no traffic between Hungary and South-East Asia where the new flu variants evolve. Thus, they could not get into Europe. Furthermore, even if they did, they did not have a chance to spread because of Covid-19 measures, like mask-wearing. 

However, in 2021, such measures are much more moderate, so the virus will have a chance to spread, Dr Lajos Ócsai, the Head of the Department of Epidemiology Office of the Chief Medical Officer of State, told the Hungarian daily. The H3N2 variant of the virus, for example, has

already been detected in Croatia, the Netherlands, Russia, Scotland, Ireland, and Sweden.

He said that the outbreak of a flu epidemic is inevitable in places where authorities do not ban mass events.

Therefore, people should accept the flu vaccine. This is extremely important for those struggling with other diseases because both the coronavirus and the flu viruses make other illnesses worse.