The number of new people admitted to the hospital because of the new coronavirus (Covid-19) in Belgium per day "seems to be stabilising," the FPS Public Health announced at the daily press briefing.
On Friday, the FPS reported that 578 new patients with coronavirus had been admitted to the hospital the previous day. With 536 new hospitalisations reported on Monday, 485 on Tuesday, 560 on Wednesday, and 584 on Thursday, the number seems to be fluctuating "roughly between 500 and 600 new cases every day," said professor Steven Van Gucht. "The stabilisation is encouraging," he added.
“That is still high, but it is a good sign that it does not seem to be increasing. It is a possibility that we are reaching a peak or a plateau, but we will have to see that in the coming days,” Van Gucht said, adding that the figure of new hospitalisations is "the most important and reliable figure" to predict the situation, according to him.
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The number of new infections also seems to be stabilising, according to the FPS. "It is stabilising at a pretty high level, but it is stabilising. If we look at the number of newly-confirmed cases, despite the fact that we are testing more, it seems to remain largely the same," Van Gucht said.
However, it is still too early to say that Belgium is over the peak, which was predicted to occur "around the beginning of April."
"It is only when the numbers start to fall that we can say, with certainty, that we are over the peak," Van Gucht said, adding that he is hopeful that the figures will start dropping in the next coming days. "The sooner the better, of course, but it's still a bit of guesswork, because we have to wait for the new figures every day," he said.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
