The number of positive coronavirus cases in Belgium has slightly increased, according to the latest official figures published by the Sciensano public health institute on Monday.
From 16 to 22 April, the number of people testing positive per day rose to 3,605, up by 2% from the 7-day average of the week before.
The total number of confirmed cases in Belgium since the beginning of the pandemic is 974,418. 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.
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Over the past two weeks, 435.7 infections were confirmed per 100,000 inhabitants, which is an 11% decrease compared to the two weeks before.
Belgium’s reproduction rate has dropped to 0.95, meaning that one person with coronavirus infects on average fewer than one other person. This means that the epidemic is slowly retreating in Belgium.
From 16 to 22 April, an average number of 38.9 deaths occurred per day, the same number as the week before, but an important reverse of the previous increases. This brings the total number of deaths in the country since the beginning of the pandemic to 24,024.
Between 19 and 25 April, an average of 227.3 patients was admitted to the hospital per day, 6.8 fewer than the average of the week before.
The total number of coronavirus patients in hospitals on Sunday was 2,886, up by 33 from the day before. Of the total, 888 patients were in intensive care units, up by two from the day before. Meanwhile, 502 patients were on a ventilator, down by two since the previous day.
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 12,289,480 tests have been carried out. Of those tests, an average of 42,570.0 was taken per day over the past week, with a positivity rate of 9.4%.
This percentage is down 0.5% since last week's seven-day average while testing increased by 4%.
As of 25 April, a total of 2,656,058 people in Belgium have received at least one dose of the vaccine against Covid-19, or 28.9% of the population aged 18 and older.
In addition, 748,048 people – or 8.1% of the adult population – have been fully vaccinated.
Lauren Walker
The Brussels Times
