Between 3 and 9 November, an average of 10,081 people were infected with Covid-19 every day in Belgium, according to figures from the Sciensano public health institute published on Saturday.
This is an increase of 39 percent compared to the previous week, Belga News Agency reports.
After a record 15,208 infections in one day on Monday, some 12,942 more were recorded on Tuesday, showing the growing strength of the current 4th wave of the pandemic.
Between 6 and 12 November, 207 daily hospital admissions of coronavirus patients were also recorded, an increase of 21 percent compared to the previous reference period. On Wednesday alone, there were 287 hospital admissions, followed by another 224 and 173 on Thursday and Friday.
At the moment, 2,391 patients are being treated in hospital (+29 percent), with 487 (+27 percent) of those in intensive care. These figures have not been seen since the beginning and end of May respectively.
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The milestone of 500 people in intensive care due to Covid-19 is expected to be reached by the end of the weekend.
From 3 to 9 November, an average of 23.6 people per day died as a result of the virus, an increase of 9 percent compared to the previous seven-day period. Since the beginning of the crisis, Belgium has recorded 26,321 deaths from Covid-19.
An average of 83,800 tests were carried out daily (+7 percent), with a positive rate of 12.7 percent during the reference period.
The reproduction rate of the virus, which represents the average number of new people infected by each already-infected person, is 1.12. When it is above 1, it means that the epidemic is gaining ground in Belgium.
Vaccination rates remain uneven across the regions, with 80 percent of people in Flanders fully vaccinated but 69 percent in Wallonia and just 56 percent in Brussels. In the German-speaking region of Ostbelgien, 64 percent of people are fully vaccinated.
