The reproduction rate of the new coronavirus in Belgium rose to 1.033, Belgium’s Public Health Institute Sciensano reported on Friday.
An R number, or reproduction number, higher than 1 means that an infected person on average infects more than one other person, thus further spreading the epidemic.
Sciensano calculates the reproduction rate based on the number of hospital admissions. For the week from 10 to 16 July, they arrived at a value of 1.033, with a margin of error between 0.810 to 1.292.
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Sciensano had already indicated on Thursday that the reproduction number in our country had risen to 1 for the first time since 4 April. Several other experts referred to an even higher R number, basing their calculations on the number of infections. Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès also mentioned a reproduction number above 1 on Wednesday after the end of the National Security Council.
Sciensano will continue to use the number of hospital admissions as the basis for the reproduction number, because “maintaining the same method will make it possible to compare the variations in Rt (the reproductive rate) since the beginning of the epidemic.”
Wilmès has asked Sciensano to start reporting daily figures again, as numbers have been consistently rising. Several House members had called for a return to the old counting style. Sciensano had shifted from daily figures to trends from 22 June as the spread of the virus had reduced at that time.
The Brussels Times
