Belgium has been hit harder by the coronavirus than a number of other countries in Europe in terms of the number of Covid-19 deaths, especially compared to the number of infections, according to a new study by the UZ Gent.
During the past two years of pandemic, Belgium has had more and longer peak periods than other Western European countries, resulting in proportionally more deaths.
"During the coronavirus crisis, we have always looked at the number of infections: increases and decreases in the figures. In our study, we mainly looked at the severity of the pandemic," John Crombez, a researcher in Belgian health care at Ghent University Hospital, told Het Nieuwsblad.
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To do that, Crombez and fellow researcher Rob De Staelen analysed the peak periods in which there were many infections and deaths. The longer and the more frequent those periods, the higher the severity. In Western Europe, Belgium did not score well, and neither did Portugal and the United Kingdom.
Strikingly, Belgium was proportionally hit much harder in the number of deaths than in the number of infections. Experts repeatedly said that Belgium's death rate was so high because of overreporting, but the researchers stated that is only partially true: even when this factor was taken into account, Belgium still stood out.
"The health status before the coronavirus crisis partly explains how hard a country is hit in the number of deaths," said Crombez. "Countries were divided into four categories on the basis of various health indicators, such as causes of death. Belgium was in the second-worst category."
