The average daily number of people admitted to hospital with Covid-19 has now passed below 75, according to the latest figures from the Sciensano Public Health Institute updated on Sunday morning.
On Saturday, a total of 979 people were in hospital as a result of the coronavirus (56 fewer than on Friday), of whom 336 (-23) people were being treated in intensive care, and 212 (-7) were on a ventilator. This is the first time the number of Covid patients has fallen before 1,000 since October.
The decline is almost certainly due to the rate of vaccination against Covid. While a person who has been vaccinated -- especially only once -- can still be infected, the consequences are likely to be much less serious, and much less likely to lead to hospitalisation.
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.
Between 29 May and 4 June, there was an average of 74.3 new hospital admissions per day due to the coronavirus, a 17% decrease compared to the previous reference period, and the breach of another threshold set for relaxation of measures.
Between 27 May and 2 June, an average of 1,578 new coronavirus infections were detected per day, down by 16% compared to the previous week, continuing a period of almost uninterrupted decline.
Meanwhile, the daily average of testing over the past week increased by 2% (an average of 45,675.4 tests were carried out) with a positive rate of 4.1% (down by 0.9%).
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,069,874 cases of coronavirus infection have been diagnosed in Belgium.
During the period 27 May to 2 June, an average of 13.1 people died per day from the virus (down by 17.1% from the previous week), bringing the total to 25,019 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 210.5, down by 29%.
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 Saturday, more than half of the adult population in Belgium (53.9%) had received the first injection of a coronavirus vaccine. This figure equates to almost five million people.
Of these, 2,438,134 people (26.4% of the adult population in Belgium) have received a second dose and are now considered fully protected.
The Brussels Times
