The average number of people who died as a result of the coronavirus in Belgium per week has almost halved compared to last week, according to the latest figures from the Sciensano Public Health Institute updated on Thursday morning.
Between 10 and 16 May, an average of 20.6 people died per day from the virus (down by 44.4% from the previous week), bringing the total to 24,768 deaths since the start of the pandemic in Belgium.
Over the same period, an average of 2,087 new coronavirus infections were detected per day, down by 30% compared to the previous week. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,038,514 cases of coronavirus infection have been diagnosed in Belgium.
Meanwhile, the daily average of testing over the past week was down by 21% (an average of 41,749.3 tests were carried out) with a positive rate of 5.8% (down by 0.6%).
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The incidence, which indicates the average number of new cases per day per 100,000 inhabitants, reached 309.6 over 14 days, down by 21%.
The reproduction rate of the coronavirus is continuing to decrease in Belgium and dropped to 0.88. When this number is below 1, it means that the epidemic gradually slowing down.
Between 13 and 19 May, there was an average of 127.1 new hospital admissions per day due to coronavirus, an 18% decrease compared to the previous reference period.
On Wednesday, a total of 1,704 people were in hospital as a result of the coronavirus (49 fewer than on Tuesday), of whom 589 (-24) people were being treated in intensive care, and 363 (-12) were on a ventilator.
Over 4 million adults in Belgium (44.1%) have received the first injection of a coronavirus vaccine. Of these, over 1,438,285 (about 15.6% of the adult population in Belgium) have received a second dose and are considered fully protected.
