The number of new coronavirus infections in the country is continuing to decline, according to the latest official figures published by the Sciensano public health institute on Friday.
Between 29 March and 5 April, an average of 3,592 new people tested positive per day, down by 25% from the 7-day average of the week before.
The total number of confirmed cases in Belgium since the beginning of the pandemic is 913,057. The total reflects all people in Belgium who have been infected and includes confirmed active cases as well as patients who have since recovered or died as a result of the virus.
Over the past two weeks, 512.3 infections were confirmed per 100,000 inhabitants, which is a 10% increase compared to the two weeks before.
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Between 2 and 8 April, an average of 253.3 patients was admitted to the hospital per day, a decrease of 3% compared to the week before, and down from yesterday's 7-day average of 259.
In total, 3,128 coronavirus patients were in hospital on Thursday, 24 fewer than the day before. The rise in the number of patients in intensive care is starting to slow down, as there were 911 patients in these units on Thursday, two more than the day before.
Meanwhile, 515 patients were on a ventilator, ten more than the previous day.
From 29 March to 5 April, an average number of 39.4 deaths occurred per day, marking a 47.6% increase compared to the week before, and up from yesterday's average weekly deaths of 36.7.
The total number of deaths in the country since the beginning of the pandemic is currently 23,348.
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 11,571,305 tests has been carried out. Of those tests, an average of 54,059.0 was taken per day over the past week, with a positivity rate of 8.1%.
This percentage remained stable since yesterday's positivity rate of the last seven days, while testing decreased by 21%.
As of yesterday, a total of 1,607,371 people in Belgium have received at least one dose of the vaccine against Covid-19, or 17.5% of the population aged 18 and older, up by almost 44,000 from the day before.
In addition, 591,359 people – or 6.4% of the adult population – have been fully vaccinated.
The reproduction rate, meanwhile, stands at 0.97, meaning that one person with coronavirus infects on average less than one other person and that the epidemic is slowly declining in Belgium.
Lauren Walker
The Brussels Times
