The number of people who have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in Belgium has now passed 25,000, according to the latest figures from the Sciensano Public Health Institute updated on Saturday morning.
On Friday, a total of 1,007 people were in hospital as a result of the coronavirus (56 fewer than on Thursday), of whom 341 (-23) people were being treated in intensive care, and 219 (-21) were on a ventilator.
The number of ICU cases has now fallen far below the threshold of 500 set by the Consultative Committee as the boundary at which it would be safe to open up more of society starting from next Wednesday.
Yesterday the Consultative Committee met to discuss the epidemiological situation in Belgium, and announced changes to a number of measures.
Between 28 May and 3 June, there was an average of 77 new hospital admissions per day due to the coronavirus, an 18% decrease compared to the previous reference period, and over 120 fewer than at the start of May.
Between 26 May and 1 June, an average of 1,723 new coronavirus infections were detected per day, down by 12% compared to the previous week, continuing a period of almost uninterrupted decline.
Meanwhile, the daily average of testing over the past week increased by 6% (an average of 47,507.4 tests were carried out) with a positive rate of 4.4% (down by 0.7%).
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,068,406 cases of coronavirus infection have been diagnosed in Belgium.
During the same period, an average of 12.9 people died per day from the virus (down by 26.2% from the previous week), bringing the total to 25,014 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 224.9, down by 25%.
The reproduction rate of the coronavirus in Belgium has gone up slightly to 0.87 after nearing 0.80 last week. While this number remains below 1, it means that the epidemic gradually slowing down. The number has been lower than 1 since 22 April.
As of Friday, more than half of the adult population in Belgium (53%) had received the first injection of a coronavirus vaccine. This figure equates to almost 4.9 million people.
Of these, 2,351,884 people (25.5% of the adult population in Belgium) have received a second dose and are considered fully protected.
The Brussels Times
