Brussels: The number of new infections continues to decrease in Belgium, as the figures published by the Sciensano Institute of Public Health on Tuesday morning showed.
An average of 1,901 new daily infections were identified. There was a 31 percent decrease from the last week and a drop from 2,528 on Friday last week, between 15 and 21 October.
Along with this, the average number of tests taken per day reduced to almost 10,000 per day, while the positivity rate has decreased to 21.4 percent, which means slightly over one in five tests was positive.
Omicron BA.5 still represents 91.2 percent of all infections, making it the prevalent strain. The strain is effective at getting through people’s built-up immunity but isn’t considered to be any more contagious than the other Omicron subvariants.
Nine infections-related deaths occurred in the same week (-9 percent). The number of persons who have passed away in Belgium since the epidemic began is 32,883, although this number includes those who passed away from another cause while still afflicted, therefore, it is an exaggeration of Covid-19 fatalities.
Averaging 102 Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospitals every day over the past seven days (-6 percent), down from 111 on Friday. This statistic solely accounts for those who were admitted to the nearby hospital as a result of the infection.
One thousand four hundred thirty-six persons have been diagnosed with the virus overall in Belgian hospitals, a number that has remained mostly unchanged, while 85 people are receiving intensive care treatment, a little increase from last Friday.
Patients who were first hospitalised with a different disease and later tested positive are included in this number.
The average number of persons that get the virus from each sick person has decreased from 1 to 0.93, or the reproduction rate. When this number is less than 1, the outbreak in Belgium is said to be slowing down.
Over the last 14 days, the incidence (the number of new cases per 100,000 people) has marginally decreased to 281 instances.
