COVID-19 hospitalisations down for the tenth consecutive day
The public health science institute Sciensano has released the latest figures on the coronavirus pandemic in Belgium. They show a continuation of the positive trend set over the past week and half. The 7-day rolling average for new infections has fallen bellow 3,000 for the first time since mid-March and the 7-day average for hospitalisations is down for the tenth consecutive day.
On Tuesday 4 May the country’s hospitals reported 189 admissions of patients with COVID-19. 279 patients were discharged. This brings the total number of patients with COVID-19 that are being cared for in Belgian hospitals to 2,614. This is 9% lower than it was a week ago. Of those in hospital 795 are on ICUs, a fall of 11% on this time last week. 494 patients are on ventilators, a fall of 6%.
During the week from 25 April to 1 May an average of 37 people with COVID-19 died in Belgium each day. This is 5.1% down on the 7-day average for the previous week. Up until now 24,367 people with COVID-19 have died in Belgium.
During the week from 25 April to 1 May an average of 2,953 people tested positive for coronavirus each day. This is 16% down on the 7-day average for the previous week. The last time the 7-day average for positive tests was below 3,000 was back on 13 March. So far 999,627 positive coronavirus tests have been recorded in Belgium.
During the week from 25 April to 1 May an average of 46,900 people were tested for coronavirus in Belgium each day. This is 8% up on the previous week. Of those tested 7.2% tested positive for the virus. While the positivity ratio has fallen sharply (down 1.7 percentage points on the previous week) it is still well above the 5% threshold above which the WHO describes an epidemic as “giving cause for concern”.
The basic reproductive rate (R0) for coronavirus in Belgium currently stands at 0.92. This means that every 100 people that are infected infect a further 92 people.
On Monday 3 May (the latest date for which figures are available) 3,133,904 people in Belgium had received at least one shot of coronavirus vaccine. This is 34.1% of the adult population. 856,638 people (9.3% of the adult population) had been two shots and are fully immunised.