The rate at which Belgium is able to conduct novel Coronavirus tests each day has more than doubled in one week and now tops 10,000, the Office of Minister Philippe De Backer announced on Saturday.
“Testing capacity is now over 10,000 tests per day in Belgium,” the minister’s office said, recalling that last week’s average varied between 3,500 and 4,000 tests per day.
It added that the stock of sampling material had enabled hospitals to ramp up testing.
Additionally, test criteria have been reviewed based on the increase in available capacity, in consultation with the Public Health Department’s Risk Management Group (RMG).
Some 20,000 tests have been reserved for rest homes in the short term.
The number of tests, based on the number of inhabitants in the various areas, for which the RMG has given its agreement is as follows: German-speaking Community (106); Wallonia (6,597); Brussels Capital Region (2,054) and Flanders (11,243).
Over the weekend, regions will provide the task force with a list of rest and nursing homes for testing.
The Brussels Times
