COVID-19: Slow fall in the number of hospitalisations continues

During the week from 13 to 19 April an average of 234 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalised each day. This is a fall of 8% on the 7-day rolling average for the previous week, when an average of 253 COVID-19 patients were admitted to Belgian hospitals each day. 

On Sunday 18 April the country’s hospitals reported 201 new admissions of patients with COVID-19. 95 patients were discharged. There are currently 3,000 patients with COVID-19 that are being cared for in Belgian hospitals. Of these 933 are on intensive care wards and 555 are on ventilators. The number of ICU patients has risen by 3% during the past week, while the number of patients on ventilators is up 4%.

During the week from 9 to 15 April an average of 39 people with COVID-19 died each day. This is down 9.6% on the average daily death toll during the previous week. So far 23,747 people with COVID-19 have died in Belgium.

During the week from 9 to 15 April an average of 3,529 people in Belgium tested positive for coronavirus each day. This is down 1% on the previous week that included the long Easter weekend.

Between 9 and 15 April an average of 40,700 coronavirus tests were carried out each day. This is down 10% on the previous week. Of those tested 9.9% tested positive for the virus. The WHO describes any positivity ratio above 5% as “giving cause for concern”.

The basic reproductive rate (R0) for coronavirus in Belgium currently stands at 0.95. This means that every 100 people with coronavirus infect a further 95.  

On Saturday 17 April 2,260,513 people in Belgium had already received their first shot of coronavirus vaccine. This is 24.6% of the adult population. 704,248 people had already been given their second dose.