Belgium's the healthcare sector is seeing a "fairly large number" of workers currently absent due to Covid-19, according to the latest report by Professor of Occupational Medicine Lode Godderis (KU Leuven).
The absences come against the backdrop of rising coronavirus rates in all sectors, as well as the rising number of hospital admissions, as demonstrated by Godderis' report.
"It worries me," he said, adding that the virus is "currently circulating strongly in the working population."
The report covers the period from 8 to 21 March, and shows an incidence in the working population of 1,456 confirmed infections per 100,000 inhabitants – compared to 1,005 in the general population.
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The sectors where there is a high amount of contact between people are seeing the most infections, as was the case in the past few weeks. Apart from the healthcare sector in general, the report specifically refers to hospitals, day-care centres and residential care centres.
The education sector is also seeing the number of cases rising quickly. However, this period has seen a stronger increase among secondary education pupils, while previous reports showed the highest number of new cases among university and college students.
"This likely to be down to the general increase in cases across society, and with the fact that more activities are organised in and outside of schools," said Godderis. "The Easter holidays will arrive just in time."
The Easter holidays will start on Saturday 2 April and last until Monday 18 April (Easter Monday).
