The numbers of people being admitted to hospital, and those being transferred to intensive care, are two of the indicators currently showing a positive trend, according to the latest figures from the Sciensano Public Health Institute updated on Saturday.
On Friday, a total of 1,918 people were in hospital as a result of the coronavirus (three fewer than on Thursday), of whom 643 (-4) people were being treated in intensive care, and 387 (unchanged) were on a ventilator.
Between 8 and 14 May, there was an average of 145.3 new hospital admissions per day due to coronavirus, a 13% decrease compared to the previous reference period.
Between 5 and 11 May, an average of 2,751 new coronavirus infections were detected per day, down by 7% compared to the previous week. Since the beginning of the epidemic in Belgium, 1,028,104 cases of coronavirus infection have been diagnosed.
An average of 51,830.6 tests (up by 7%) were carried out daily in the past week, with a positive rate of 6.1% (down by 0.8%).
Over the same period, an average of 31.4 people died per day from the virus (down by 19.4%), bringing the total to 24,664 deaths since the start of the epidemic in Belgium.
The incidence, which indicates the average number of new cases per day per 100,000 inhabitants, reached 347.8 over 14 days, down by 16%.
Meanwhile, the reproduction rate of the virus has dropped again to 0.89 from 0.93 yesterday. When this number is below 1, it means that the epidemic gradually slowing down.
Over 40% of adults in Belgium (41.5%) have received the first injection of a coronavirus vaccine. This equates to more than 3.8 million people.
Of these, almost 1.2 million (about 13% of the adult population in Belgium) have received a second dose and are considered fully protected.
The Brussels Times
