Average deaths from the coronavirus in the Brussels-Capital Region in the past two months was three times higher than in Flanders.
In Flanders, around 78% of the total population has been fully vaccinated; in Brussels, barely half of all inhabitants are fully protected, which is mirrored in the number of hospitalisations and deaths as a result of the virus.
During the last two months, an average 4.96 Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants were recorded in the capital, more than three times the amount in Flanders, where 1.24 deaths occurred per 100,000 inhabitants. In Wallonia, this figure is twice that of Flanders: 2.91.
The average number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants was only 1.5 times higher in Brussels than in Flanders in the same period.
These calculations were released by the cabinet of Flemish Health Minister Wouter Beke based on the figures released by the Sciensano Health Institute.
"We took the figures starting from 12 July, because Minister Beke had promised that by 11 July every person in Flanders would be offered at least one shot," Beke's spokesperson said.
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Meanwhile, the average hospitalisations per 100,000 inhabitants in Brussels (5.87) was almost five times that in Flanders, where around 1.24 people per 100,000 inhabitants were hospitalised as a result of the virus in the last two months.
"We know that the vast majority of hospitalised Covid-19 patients are not vaccinated," said Beke, adding that those who are vaccinated and end up in hospital are mainly older people with geriatric conditions whose immune system is often weaker.
Last week, intensive care unit (ICU) nurses from the university hospital in Brussels (UZ Brussel) published an open letter in which they stressed that for the fourth time in one year and a half, there is a “new progressive increase" in the number of hospitalisations, adding that this time it could have been avoided.
“Currently, those lying here now are all unvaccinated, and that makes us especially angry because this situation could have so easily been avoided,” Caroline Robberecht, a UZ Brussel intensive care unit nurse, told The Brussels Times.
As a result of the increased number of hospitalisations and patients in ICU, Brussels' hospitals can once again transfer patients to other regions for treatment.
