New method of counting behind the big rise in the number of COVID-19 fatalities
The number of people that have died of COVID-19 since the start of the novel coronavirus epidemic in Belgium shot up to 2,035 when Tuesday’s figures were announced at the National Crisis Centre’s press conference. The sudden increase of 403 fatalities is due to a new method of counting the number of people that have died of COVID-19.
For the first time deaths from COVID-19 in Flemish care homes for the elderly were included in the figures and this will remain the case from now on.
As Flemish care home deaths between 1 and 4 April had not been included in the Crisis Centre’s previous figures the 241 people that died of COVID-19 in Flemish care homes between 1 and 4 April were added to the overall death toll on Tuesday. This deaths were on top of the 162 people that had died of COVID-19 during the previous 24 hours.
Since Monday the COVID-19 fatality figures from Flemish care homes will be systematically passed on the National Crisis Centre, albeit with a delay of two days. This was already the case for care homes in Brussels and Wallonia.