People wearing face masks are seen at a railway station in Budapest, Hungary on Oct. 4, 2020. Hungary registered 858 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising the total cases of the country to 30,575, according to the government's coronavirus information website. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)
BUDAPEST, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Hungary registered 858 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising the total cases of the country to 30,575, according to the government's coronavirus information website.
There are 685 COVID-19 patients being treated in hospital at present, 42 of whom are on ventilators. To date, there have been 7,470 recoveries and 822 fatalities.
Despite the rising number of infections, the Hungarian government does not aim at locking down the country as it had done in the spring, but has extended for one month the border controls introduced on Sept. 1, until Nov. 1.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that Hungary will procure a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, which will be made available to all citizens who want it.
Orban explained that his administration was conducting talks with the United States, Japan, China and Russia on vaccine procurement, and had also contributed to research programs funded by the European Union.
Hungary's total COVID-19 cases topped 10,000 on Sept. 10, and 20,000 on Sept. 23.
As the world is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries across the globe -- including the United Kingdom, China, Russia and the U.S. -- are racing to find a vaccine. According to the website of the World Health Organization (WHO), as of Oct. 2, there were 193 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 42 of them were in clinical trials. Enditem