'Falling like flies': Hungary's Roma community pleads for COVID help

BUDAPEST - Coronavirus infections are ravaging Hungary's 700,000-strong Roma community, according to personal accounts that suggest multiple deaths in single families are common in an unchecked outbreak fuelled by deep distrust of authorities.

Data on infections in the community is unavailable but interviews with about a dozen Roma, who often live in cramped and unsanitary conditions, reveal harrowing stories of suffering and death and of huge health-care challenges. "Our people are falling like flies," said Aladar Horvath, a Roma rights advocate who travels widely among the community.