It’s still very much a case of “all hands on deck” on the country’s ICU’s
The public health science institute Sciensano has released the latest figures on the coronavirus pandemic in Belgium. They show falls in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus as well as in the number of people with COVID-19 that are requiring hospital treatment and in those with the virus that are dying.
During the week from 13 to 19 April an average of 233 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalised each day. This is down 8% on the 7-day rolling average for the previous week.
On Monday 19 April the country’s hospitals reported 210 admissions of COVID-19 patients. 62 patients were discharged. There are currently 3,114 patients with COVID-19 in the country’s hospitals. Of these 938 are on ICU wards and 557 are on ventilators. During the past week the number of patients in intensive care has risen by 2%, while the number of patients on ventilators is up by 1%.
During the week from 10 to 16 April an average of 39 people with COVID-19 died in Belgium each day. This figure is down 8.7% compared with the 7-day rolling average for the previous week. The number of people with COVID-19 that have died since the start of the pandemic now stands at 23,782.
During the week from 10 to 16 April an average of 3,448 people were tested for coronavirus each day. This is 2% down on the 7-day rolling average for the previous week. During the same period an average 40,000 people were tested each day. This is 6% down on the previous week. Of those tested 9.8% tested positive for coronavirus. This is way above the 5% positivity rate above which the WHO describes an epidemic as “giving cause for concern”.
The basic reproductive rate for coronavirus in Belgium currently stands at 0.96. This means that every 100 people with coronavirus infect a further 96 people.
On Sunday 18 April (the most recent date for which figures are available) 2,290,268 people in Belgium had received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine. This is 24.9% of the adult population. 710,000 people had already been given their second dose.