Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) infections went down this week in Belgium, but daily deaths from the virus are still increasing and intensive care units are close to saturation, with only a few beds remaining.
"Ninety-six percent (96%) of beds in intensive care are currently occupied by Covid and non-Covid patients,” Covid-19 interfederal spokesman Yves Van Laethem said on Friday at a joint press conference of the Crisis Centre and the Sciensano public health institute.
“We’re on the right track, but the road is still long,” Van Laethem said.
This week, hospitalisations decreased slightly, for the first time in 27 days, but the pressure on health services is still considerable, especially in intensive care units.
A total of 3,116 persons were still hospitalised due to Covid-19 during the period of 3-9 April, including 925 patients in intensive care. However, Covid-related hospital admissions averaged 250.3 per day, a 9% drop, according to figures updated on Saturday by Sciensano.
Daily deaths from the virus averaged 41.1 between 31 March and 6 April, an increase of 46.9% over the preceding seven-day period, Sciensano said in its latest report. This brought the cumulative death toll since the start of the pandemic to 23,390.
New infections averaged 3,594 per day, 24% less than in the previous seven-day period. Since the start of the pandemic, 917,917 cases of infection have been registered in Belgium.
An average of nearly 49,000 tests are done each day, with a positivity rate of 8.2%.
The reproduction rate of the virus is now 0.96. When the rate is above 1, that means the epidemic is spreading.
The incidence of the virus – the average number of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over a 14-day period - is now 505.3.
The Brussels Times
