An average of 507.9 people per day tested positive for the coronavirus (Covid-19) in Belgium during the past week, according to figures by Sciensano on Sunday.
The figure refers to the period from 13 to 19 August and reflects a fall of 15% in the numbers compared with the previous week.
The total number of confirmed cases in Belgium since the start of the pandemic has now reached 81,468, 484 more than yesterday.
While lower numbers were seen in most of the country, in Brussels 898 new cases were counted, 76 more than the previous week. Flemish Brabant saw 274 new cases, an increase of 57, while Hainaut counted an increase of 23 to 288.
All other provinces saw a fall in their numbers, of between 14 fewer cases for Limburg province and 416 fewer cases in Antwerp province.
Antwerp province has by far the largest number of cases, with an average of 1,273 a week over the past three weeks. Brussels in second place, over the same period, had an average of 660 cases a week. However when populations are compared, Brussels comes to an incidence of 73.7 cases per 100,000 population, compared to Antwerp’s incidence of 42.5.
From 13 to 19 August inclusive, the authorities recorded an average of 30.4 new hospital admissions per day, compared to 31 a week earlier.
In total, 310 patients were in hospital yesterday, four fewer than the day before, while 85 patients were in intensive care, an increase of 11 since the day before, according to Sciensano’s dashboard. Of those, 47 are on a respirator, the same number as the day before, which had been the highest number since early June.
Since the beginning of the epidemic in Belgium, a total of 18,863 people have been hospitalised, 54.7% from Flanders, 29.7% from Wallonia and 15.6% from Brussels.
An average number of 9.7 deaths occurred per day over the period 13 t0 19 August – 31% more than the daily average of 7.3 in last week’s report.
The total number of deaths in Belgium since the beginning of the pandemic is currently 9,988 – three more than yesterday. Flanders accounted for 50.2%, Wallonia for 34.5% and Brussels for 15.3%.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
