Between 12 and 18 May, an average of 2,159 new coronavirus infections were detected per day, down by 22% compared to the previous week. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,044,612 cases of coronavirus infection have been diagnosed in Belgium.
Meanwhile, the daily average of testing over the past week was down by 19.6% (an average of 42,163.6 tests were carried out) with a positive rate of 5.8% (down by 0.3%).
Between 15 and 21 May, there was an average of 127.4 new hospital admissions per day due to coronavirus, a 12% decrease compared to the previous reference period.
On Friday, a total of 1,612 people were in hospital as a result of the coronavirus (30 fewer than on Thursday), of whom 540 (-22) people were being treated in intensive care, and 354 (-7) were on a ventilator.
The number of ICU cases is rapidly approaching the threshold of 500, set by the Consultative Committee as the boundary at which it would be safe to open up more of society in June.
Between 11 and 17 May, an average of 19.9 people died per day from the virus (down by 37.1% from the previous week), bringing the total to 24,809 deaths since the start of the pandemic in Belgium.
The incidence, which indicates the average number of new cases per day per 100,000 inhabitants, reached 299.8 over 14 days, down by 20%.
The reproduction rate of the coronavirus in Belgium last week dropped to below 0.90 and remained stable at 0.88 for the last two days. It has now gone up to 0.93. When this number is below 1, it means that the epidemic gradually slowing down.
Almost 46% of the adult population in Belgium has received the first injection of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest figures from the Sciensano Public Health Institute updated on Saturday morning.
This figure equates to over 4.2 million people. Of these, 1,560,689 people (16.9% of the adult population in Belgium) have received a second dose and are considered fully protected.
The Brussels Times
