First 100 Days of Hungarian COVID-19 Policies

Authors: Ádám Kerényi, Weichen Wang

In: Stojanović, A., Scarcella, L., Mosalagae, C.R. (eds) The First 100 Days of Covid-19. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6325-4_6

Abstract

Hungary is a small country with a population of only 10 million. Most deaths during the pandemic were caused by people catching Covid-19 and subsequently dying from it directly. People who need surgery or access to the hospital might have died due to the Covid-19 response absorbing the resources that would ordinarily have been available to tend to their medical cases. On the bright side social distancing rules and restrictions for combating Covid-19 might have protected some people from catching seasonal flu, decreasing excess mortality. Economically due to the relatively low level of GDP loss during the pandemic, there was little incentive for the Hungarian government to spend heavily in non-health sectors in saving the economy.