Cecília Müller said that in the first week of the year almost 162,000 people turned to their GP with an acute respiratory infection, and 19,000 of them were diagnosed with a flu-type illness.

Acute respiratory diseases increased by 20% and flu-like diseases by 50% compared with the last week of the year, she said.

The severest data were from Győr-Moson-Sopron and Békés counties (in western and south-eastern Hungary, respectively), while the fewest were in Fejér and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén counties (eastern and central, respectively), she added.

In the first week of the year, 367 people were hospitalised with acute respiratory infections, and 42 people required intensive care.

Fully 45.5% of the 367 patients treated at the hospital were below the age of two, while 41.7% were older than 60.

Fully 105 patients were diagnosed with RSV, 100 with coronavirus, and 17 with influenza.

Currently, there is no ban on visiting hospitals, but this could change as the number of cases increases, she said.