Steven Van Gucht: "Fall in hospitalisations in Flanders appears to be stabilising”
The number of coronavirus infections, people with COVID-19 that are being hospitalised and people with the virus that are dying continues to fall and this is good news says Professor Steven Van Gucht. However, there are two issues that could potentially give cause for concern.
Professor Van Gucht told Monday morning’s press conference given by the public health science institute Sciensano that “We see that the number of hospitalisations in Flanders seems to have been stabilising during the past few days. We don’t have an explanation for this, but it is something we will monitor closely during the next few days. We also see a slight rise in the number of positive test results among children and teenagers. This too will continue to be monitored during the next few days”.
The number of positive test results is falling by half every 11 days. 50% of all those testing positive are between the ages of 20 and 60. 15% of those testing positive are over the age of 80 and 10% are children or teenagers.
Hospital admission of COVID-19 patients are falling across the country. However, the fall is less pronounced in Flanders than it is in Wallonia or Brussels. In Flanders there were 15% fewer hospital admissions last week then there were the week before, in Brussels hospital admissions were down 26%, while in Wallonia the fall was 36%.
If the trend continues at this rate “We could end up with 75 hospital admissions per day at the end of December”, Professor Van Gucht said.