The number of people dying as a result of the coronavirus in Belgium is continuing to decrease, according to the latest figures from the Sciensano Public Health Institute updated on Wednesday morning.
Between 23 and 29 May, an average of 13.1 people died per day from the virus (down by 31.9% from the previous week), bringing the total to 24,955 deaths since the start of the pandemic in Belgium.
During the same period, an average of 1,740 new coronavirus infections were detected per day, down by 28% compared to the previous week, continuing a period of almost uninterrupted decline.
Meanwhile, the daily average of testing over the past week decreased by 12% (an average of 43,622.3 tests were carried out) with a positive rate of 4.6% (down by 0.9%).
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,063,499 cases of coronavirus infection have been diagnosed in Belgium.
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Between 25 and 31 May, there was an average of 84.9 new hospital admissions per day due to the coronavirus, a 22% decrease compared to the previous reference period.
On Tuesday, a total of 1,161 people were in hospital as a result of the coronavirus (71 fewer than on Monday), of whom 403 (-35) people were being treated in intensive care, and 253 (-23) were on a ventilator.
Over the last two weeks, the number of ICU cases has decreased by over 300 and has now fallen 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 in June.
The incidence, which indicates the average number of new cases per day per 100,000 inhabitants, reached 253.7, down by 19%.
The reproduction rate of the coronavirus in Belgium has gone up slightly to 0.86 after sitting at 0.82 for two days. When this number is below 1, it means that the epidemic gradually slowing down. The number has been lower than 1 since 22 April.
As of Monday, more than half of the adult population in Belgium received the first injection of a coronavirus vaccine. This figure equates to over 4.66 million people.
Of these, 2,140,527 people (23.2% of the adult population in Belgium) have received a second dose and are considered fully protected.
