Spike in number of infections now followed by sharp rise in number of Covid patients taken to hospital
The rolling average of the number of hospitalisations sees an increase of 84 percent on the week, to reach 25 on average per day. The latest available day figures are not predicting anything good : 33 yesterday and 35 the day before yesterday.
The scientific institute Sciensano released the latest figures for the rolling averages this morning. For the week between 20 to 26 July, Belgium had 347 new infections per day on average, a rise of 77 percent on the week.
The rising number of infections is now being seen in the number of hospitalisations. The rolling average for the week between 23 and 29 July has climbed to 25, an increase of 84 percent on the week (the number was at 14 patients per day the week before).
There is, so far, no impact on the number of Covid deaths. The rolling average for 20 to 26 July was two deaths per day, compared to three the week before that.
Meanwhile, the R-value or reproduction figure - which shows how many other people one infected peron contaminates - has risen to 1.48, coming from 1.44 on Wednesday.