Between August 7 and 13, the number of patients admitted to hospital rose by 33%, according to the Sciensano Public Health Institute on Saturday.
During that period, there were 54.4 hospital admissions on an average per day of patients suffering from Covid-19, an increase of one-third compared to the previous reporting period.
A total of 495 people remain hospitalised due to Covid-19 (20 more than the previous day), including 136 patients being treated in intensive care (+4), with 67 on a ventilator (+12).
Between August 4 and 10, an average of 1,825 new Covid-19 infections were detected per day, up 9% compared with the previous week.
During the same period, 3.1 people died on average per day from the virus (-19%), bringing the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in Belgium to 25,287.
An average of 48,125.4 tests were also performed daily, with a positive rate of 4.2%.
The virus reproduction rate is up slightly to 1.22. This figure represents the average number of people infected by each infected person, When it is higher than 1, it means that the epidemic is growing in the population.
The incidence, which indicates the number of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, reached 213.2 over the past 14 days.
Nearly 8.3 million Belgians have received a first dose of the vaccine, representing 84.4% of the population, and almost 7.6 million people are fully vaccinated, accounting for 80.5% of the adult Belgian population.
Young people and returning travellers are part of the reason the number of coronavirus infections in the Brussels-Capital Region is rising, according to Inge Neven, head of the Brussels Health Inspectorate.
Meanwhile the Brussels region has among the lowest levels of vaccinations in Western Europe. Only 63% of the adult population has been vaccinated once, and 59% twice. That compares with 86% of the population of Flanders fully vaccinated, and 79% in Wallonia.
The Brussels Times
