Front line

At the beginning of 2020 the world was confronted with one of the biggest challenges of our modern day history. The COVID-19 pandemic redefined daily life for the entire country, including in the Uzsoki Street Hospital in Budapest, Hungary. The true heroes of the year were doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers who battled the epidemic, risking their lives every day on the frontline under extremely demanding circumstances. The Uzsoki Hospital has been functioning as the pandemic treatment center since the beginning of COVID-19 infections. The fight against the coronavirus at the Uzsoki Hospital eerily resembles the life-saving measures rendered on the battlefield: treating desperate patients in a life-threatening environment, fighting an invisible and deadly enemy, enduring extreme mental and physical fatigue, witnessing a high number of deaths. The number of deaths in Hungary has reached more than 40,000 since the beginning of the outbreak in 2020. This number is extremely high.

At the beginning of 2020 the world was confronted with one of the biggest challenges of our modern day history. The COVID-19 pandemic redefined daily life for the entire country, including in the Uzsoki Street Hospital in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. The true heroes of the year were doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers who battled the epidemic, risking their lives every day on the frontline under extremely demanding circumstances. Nearly 80 healthcare workers lost their lives due to the coronavirus in Hungary in the past few years. Among those who died were nurses, primary care physicians, gynecologists, chief physicians, and paramedics.

The Uzsoki Street Hospital has been functioning as the pandemic treatment center since the beginning of the first wave of COVID-19 infections, which resulted in various changes to the hospital’s daily operation. These changes were unfathomable a few years ago. The fight against the coronavirus at the Uzsoki Street Hospital eerily resembles the life-saving measures rendered on the battlefield: treating desperate patients in a life-threatening environment, fighting an invisible and deadly enemy, enduring extreme mental and physical fatigue, witnessing a high number of deaths. The number of deaths in Hungary has reached more than 40,000 since the beginning of the outbreak in the spring of 2020. This number is extremely high based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in other countries relative to their population, putting Hungary in the top five most affected.