Number of coronavirus infections continues to rise
The public health science institute Sciensano has released new figures on the novel coronavirus pandemic in Belgium. They show another sharp rise in the number of new infections. The rolling average for the latest 7-day period for which figures are available shows that an average of 681 people/day tested positive for the virus. This is up 42% on the figures for the 7-days prior to this. Last Thursday 940 new novel coronavirus infections were recorded.
However, we can take some comfort from the fact that just a very small number of those that test positive for the virus become seriously ill.
During the past week an average of 30 COVID-19 patients/day were admitted to Belgian hospitals. Although this figure remains relatively low and is nothing like the figures we saw in March and April, it is still double the number of hospital admissions during the previous week.
On Sunday (13 September) a total of 291 COVID-19 patients were receiving treatment in Belgian hospitals. Of these 71 were being treated on intensive care wards.
Meanwhile, the 7-day rolling average number of deaths from COVID-19 is down to 2/day during the latest 7-day period for which figures are available. This compares with 3 fatalities/day during the previous week.