After slumping to almost 300 in the last weeks, the average number of new coronavirus infections per day in Belgium has sharply increased and reached 1,000 on Wednesday.
Between 4 and 10 July, an average of 1,006 new coronavirus infections were detected per day, an 83% increase from the average of the previous week, according to the latest figures from Sciensano Health Institute.
The daily average of testing over the past week decreased by 4% since last week (an average of 60,548.3 tests were carried out), whilst the positivity rate has increased to 1.8%.
At first, it appeared that the rise in new cases was a result of the increased testing as people started travelling at the start of summer, but that relationship can no longer be seen.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,098,332 cases of coronavirus infection have been diagnosed in Belgium.
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During the same period, the average number of deaths due to the virus has started to increase slightly to 2.1 since the start of this week (down by 35% from the previous week), bringing the total to 25,207 deaths since the start of the pandemic in Belgium.
On Wednesday, no one died as a result of the coronavirus in Belgium for the first time since the beginning of July last year.
Between 7 and 13 July, there was an average of 17.6 new hospital admissions per day due to the coronavirus, an 11% increase compared to the previous reference period.
On Tuesday, a total of 239 people were in hospital as a result of the coronavirus (five more than on Monday) of whom 90 (+1) people were being treated in intensive care, and 57 people (-2) were on a ventilator.
The incidence, which indicates the average number of new cases per day per 100,000 inhabitants, has increased by 101% since the last 14-day period but has increased since June, as it now sits at 94.8.
The reproduction rate of the coronavirus fell slightly from 1.09 last week to 1.03. When this figure is higher than 1, it means the pandemic is gathering pace in Belgium.
As of Monday, 81.3% of the adult population in Belgium had received the first injection of a coronavirus vaccine. This figure equates to just over 7.61 million people.
Of these, almost 4.96 million people (53.8% of the adult population in Belgium) have received a second dose and are now considered fully protected.
The Brussels Times
