Tag Archives: Coronavirus

“Seller shall not undertake maintenance” – hospitals struggled with smoking, incompatible Chinese ventilators

Wirth Zsuzsanna 2021.12.21.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed unfavorable terms in a series of pricy contracts. What did hospitals do with Chinese ventilators?

PM Orbán tried to prevent hospital dramas with vaccination. In the end, he could only hide them

Szabó András, Wirth Zsuzsanna 2021.08.23.

Despite flaws in February, how did the Hungarian government manage to present its epidemiological measures as a success in the eyes of the public? Here is the background story of Hungary’s third COVID-19 wave.

12904. That is my Mom – The untold story of the victims of the coronavirus

Matyasovszki Fanni, Szőke Dániel, Zöldi Blanka 2021.06.21.

Nearly thirty thousand Hungarians died of coronavirus. Who were they? What happened to them from their first symptoms to their death? Article, photo gallery and a documentary film.

Company with murky background is at the center of Hungary’s Chinese vaccine deal

Wirth Zsuzsanna, Pethő András 2021.03.18.

There are more and more questions about the procurement of Chinese vaccines. One of the people behind the company supplying the vaccines is a former ice hockey player who, according to his acquaintances, works for an energy drink company and has never had a serious business before, Direkt36 found.

Inside Viktor Orbán’s slow response to the second wave of COVID19

Szabó András 2021.01.22. 1 Comment

Fidesz politicians believed in the forecast of Central Bank president György Matolcsy that the pandemic would only have a mild impact on the Hungarian economy, but GDP data showed a different reality.

How sloppy coronavirus measures pushed healthcare workers to the brink of death

Wirth Zsuzsanna 2020.10.22.

12 hours in surgical masks, a lack of testing and a string of nurses falling ill. In May, coronavirus tread down a hospital in Western Hungary.

The government boasted about ventilator purchases, yet Hungary made the worst deals across the EU

Zöldi Blanka 2020.08.27.

Good Chinese relations didn’t bear fruit, as Hungary paid the highest price among all EU countries, international trade data show.

Iranian students expelled from Hungary during the pandemic may be able to return

Panyi Szabolcs 2020.07.15.

Criminal charges have been dropped against the majority of the Iranian students who were expelled from Hungary in the spring for violating quarantine rules, and the Hungarian authorities have also begun to revoke their expulsion orders.

It started as a simple patient transfer, but then it showed the chaos in the coronavirus fight

Wirth Zsuzsanna 2020.07.13. 2 Comments

In April, elderly patients were transferred between two Hungarian hospitals without testing. Thus, Covid-19 got into another institution.

Tens of thousands of forgotten Hungarians on the frontlines of the coronavirus

Tasnádi Kata, Panyi Szabolcs 2020.06.13. 3 Comments

While the conditions in nursing homes for elderly have become the number one political issue in Hungary, there has been little talk of homes for the disabled and psychiatric patients, or the social workers who provide care to them. Their problems are almost invisible.

How the epidemic disrupted Orbán’s machinery

Szabó András 2020.05.06. 2 Comments

While in the past ten years the government seemed to operate with almost military-style discipline, the last few weeks brought several U-turns from the Orbán administration. Here’s what happened behind the scenes.

China suspended the export of some COVID-19 tests in April. The Hungarian government had already stocked up on them

Zöldi Blanka 2020.05.02.

Hungarian paramedics are still using tests whose exports were suspended in April. This week, China again loosened export requirements, and it seems that the Hungarian government also managed to find a reliable supplier.

„By now, no one can give even a piece of bread”

Wirth Zsuzsanna 2020.04.27.

For Hungarians living in deep poverty, the world has turned upside down since the coronavirus lockdown. Although poor rural communities have not yet seen a breakout but most jobs are gone and with no savings and barely enough food left, people cannot afford to buy even disinfectants. So far, the government has failed to take action, leaving thousands of starving families without help.

Hungarian ministerial adviser searched for coronavirus masks. He found them at a company where his father is a senior manager

Zöldi Blanka 2020.04.17.

Tons of medical masks and other personal protective equipment are arriving to Hungary almost every day. One of the big winners of the state orders is a little-known Chinese-Hungarian company with family ties to the ministry that handled the procurements.

How once cherished Iranians became coronavirus scapegoats in Orban’s Hungary

Panyi Szabolcs 2020.04.02. 1 Comment

Hungary saw great business opportunities in Iran and the Orban government tried to strenghten relations through university scholarships and residence permits. Then the course of world politics and the coronavirus changed everything.

After 15 years of constant reorganization, Hungarian epidemiology was hit hard by coronavirus

Szabó András, Wirth Zsuzsanna 2020.03.29. 3 Comments

Socialist governments crippled the network of state laboratories, Fidesz cut the epidemiologists’ central institution into pieces before trying to reverse the restructuring. Hungarian epidemiology struggles with the pandemic in a weakened state.

Direkt36 is a non-profit investigative journalism center with the mission to hold powerful people and institutions accountable.