The reproduction rate has gone up to 1.01 in Belgium, meaning that one person with coronavirus infects on average more than one other person, according to the latest official figures published by the Sciensano public health institute on Thursday.
This means that the epidemic is slowly increasing in Belgium.
From 12 to 18 April, the number of people testing positive per day increased by 1% to 3,479 from the 7-day average of the week before.
The total number of confirmed cases in Belgium since the beginning of the pandemic is 960,169. This reflects those who have been infected, all confirmed active cases, and those who have since recovered or died as a result of the virus.
Over the past two weeks, 421.2 infections were confirmed per 100,000 inhabitants, which is a 24% decrease compared to the two weeks before.
From 12 to 18 April, an average number of 38.6 deaths occurred per day, marking an 8.9% decrease compared to the week before. This brings the total number of deaths in the country since the beginning of the pandemic to 23,867.
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Between 15 and 21 April, an average of 241.6 patients was admitted to the hospital per day, the same as the average of the week before.
The total number of coronavirus patients in hospitals on Wednesday was 3,075, down by 28 from the day before, of which 933 patients were in intensive care units, up by 8 since the day before. Meanwhile, 549 patients were on a ventilator, 15 more than the previous day.
For the relaxations planned for 8 May to be possible, including the lifting of curfews and the reopening of terraces, these figures should be decreasing become possible, as they are in part subject to the situation in hospitals having “sustainably improved".
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 12,107,176 tests have been carried out. Of those tests, an average of 40,195.9 was taken per day over the past week, with a positivity rate of 9.7%.
This percentage has increased by 0.2% since last week's seven-day average, while testing decreased by 1%.
As of 20 April, a total of 2,382,870 people in Belgium have received at least one dose of the vaccine against Covid-19, or 25.9% of the population aged 18 and older.
In addition, 722,359 people – or 7.8% of the adult population – have been fully vaccinated.
Lauren Walker
The Brussels Times
