• Home
• Channel: Health & Wellness
• “Covid Will Become a Seasonal Disease”, Declares Rector of Medical University in Hungary

“Covid Will Become a Seasonal Disease”, Declares Rector of Medical University in Hungary

• 22 Aug 2022 11:56 AM
• Hungary Matters

The coronavirus pandemic has been defeated and is waning in Hungary, but the infection remains dangerous, Béla Merkely, the rector of the medical Semmelweis University, said on Sunday.

The number of Covid patients is declining again, with just 40 people being treated with the virus at Semmelweis University, only one of whom is in intensive care, Merkely told public broadcaster Kossuth Radio.

At the same time, he said everyone should get two Covid vaccine doses as well as a booster. A fourth and fifth shot is worth considering for those more at risk, he added.

Merkely noted that 64% of Hungary’s population has received two vaccine doses and 40% a third. Those who are not vaccinated are not safe from the virus, he added.

Though Omicron and other variants of the virus can continue to spread in the autumn, eventually this virus will be treated like other upper respiratory infections, he said.

Coronavirus infections will continue to decline each year and Covid will become a seasonal disease, Merkely said, noting that the same had happened with the Spanish flu in the early 20th century.

Concerning the monkeypox virus, Merkely said case numbers were expected to rise, but the outbreak was unlikely to turn into a global pandemic the way coronavirus had.


MTI Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák

• How does this content make you feel?
• I love it
• I like it
• I dislike it

• Covid Disease

XpatLoop Media Partner

Hungary Matters

Launched in January 2014, this newsletter published on week days covers 'everything you need to know about what’s going on in Hungary and beyond', according to its publisher the state media agency MTI.

Explore More Reports

Amazing Hungarian Innovations: Albert Szent-Györgyi’s Discovery of Vitamin C

• 5 Jul 2024 10:42 AM

This pivotal moment in medical science, is closely linked to the work of Albert Szent-Györgyi, a Hungarian physiologist whose research has had a lasting impact on our understanding of human health and nutrition. His groundbreaking work in the 1930s led to the identification of ascorbic acid, commonly known as Vitamin C, and earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937.



Molecular Fingerprinting Centre Inaugurated in Hungary by Nobel Prize Winner

• 18 Jun 2024 9:05 AM

The Centre for Molecular Fingerprinting (CMF), a research base for applying laser technology to health monitoring, was inaugurated in Szeged, in south-eastern Hungary.



Smoking Irreversibly Damages the Pancreas, Joint University Research Shows in Hungary

• 5 Feb 2024 9:53 AM

For the first time, Hungarian researchers have shown how smoking contributes to the development of chronic pancreatitis and why it may be responsible for persistent inflammation. Semmelweis University announced its latest joint research results of with the University of Szeged and the University of Pécs in Budapest to national and international representatives of the scientific field.



Pink Running Event: Race for the Cure in Csopak, 17 September

• 8 Sep 2023 2:02 PM

Every year in Europe 500,000 women get diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 125,000 people sadly pass away because of the disease. 1 out of 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her life.