The number of people testing positive for coronavirus has skyrocketed to the highest rate since the start of May 2021.
Between 9 and 15 October, an average of 3,010 new coronavirus infections were identified every day – a 46% increase from the previous seven days, according to the latest figures published by the Sciensano Public Health Institute on Tuesday morning.
In comparison, this number sat at around 2,000 new infections per day just five days ago. It is the first time since the start of May that the threshold of 3,000 new infections has been surpassed.
Although this increase could be explained by the by 9% increase in the average number of tests taken (48,417.6), the positivity rate itself has also risen, now sitting at 6.4%, up by 1.4% since last week.
Virologist Steven Van Gucht said this means Belgium is at the start of a new infection wave but stressed that there was no reason to panic.
During the same period, an average of 10.7 people died per day from the virus, up 14% from last week. This brings the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in Belgium to 25,780.
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Between 12 and 18 October, on average 73.3 patients suffering from Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals per day, a 29% increase since the previous week.
On Monday, a total of 914 people were in hospitals due to an infection (57 more than on Sunday), including 229 patients being treated in intensive care (+23), with 122 on a ventilator (+5).
The virus reproduction rate has meanwhile skyrocketed to 1.21, a 22% increase compared to last week's average. This figure represents the average number of people infected by each infected person, and when it is above 1, it means that the epidemic is gaining ground in Belgium.
The incidence, which indicates the number of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, has decreased slightly and now sits at 308.1 over the past 14 days.
As of Sunday, more than 8.65 million people in Belgium have received a first dose of the vaccine, representing 87% of the adult population, and 75% of the total population.
Meanwhile, more than 8.50 million people are fully vaccinated, accounting for 86% of the adult population in Belgium, and 74% of the total population.
Belgium has also started administering booster doses of coronavirus vaccines to people from certain vulnerable groups to keep the protection against the coronavirus sufficiently high. As of Sunday, almost 410,000 people had received such a dose.
