All figures indicating the situation of the epidemic in Belgium are slowly decreasing, according to the latest official figures published by the Sciensano public health institute on Friday.
From 20 to 26 April, the average number of new coronavirus cases reported per day was 3,310, 172 fewer than the 7-day average of the week before.
The total number of confirmed cases in Belgium since the beginning of the pandemic is 986,622.
Over the past two weeks, 419.9 infections were confirmed per 100,000 inhabitants, an 8% decrease compared to the two weeks before.
Belgium’s reproduction rate, meanwhile, is continuing to drop, and now stands at 0.89, its lowest in weeks. This means that one person with coronavirus infects on average fewer than one other person and that the epidemic is slowly retreating in Belgium.
From 20 to 26 April, an average number of 39.1 deaths occurred per day, down by 1.1% from the seven-day average of the week before. This brings the total number of deaths in the country since the beginning of the pandemic to 24,185.
Between 23 and 29 April, an average of 201.7 patients were admitted to the hospital per day, which is 3.9 fewer than the average of the week before, and down by 16% from the previous week's average.
The total number of coronavirus patients in hospitals on Wednesday was 2,779, down by 30 from the day before. Of this total, 862 patients were in intensive care units, 24 fewer than the day before. Meanwhile, 527 patients were on a ventilator, the same as the previous day.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced on Wednesday that the improvement of the situation in hospitals, which was one of the two requirements for the ‘outdoor plan’ to go ahead, was sufficient to reopen terraces and end the curfew on 8 May.
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 12,475,193 tests have been carried out. Of those tests, an average of 44,619.3 were taken per day over the past week, with a positivity rate of 8.6%.
This percentage is down 1.1% since last week's seven-day average while testing increased by 10%.
As of 29 April, a total of 2,855,634 people in Belgium had received at least one dose of the vaccine against Covid-19, or 31.1% of the population aged 18 and older.
In addition, 779,103 people – or 8.5% of the adult population – have been fully vaccinated.
