An average of 6.1 COVID-19 patients died each day between August 30 and September 5, which shows an increase of 10%. The Sciensano Institute of Public Health has shared the following data on Friday.
The overall number of deaths in Belgium since the start of the pandemic is 32,575. This includes people who died because of another cause but who were infected, meaning it may be an overestimate of Covid-19 deaths.
Meanwhile, an average of 1,489 new daily infections were recorded in the same week, down 2% from the last seven days.
The average number of tests taken on per day basis has increased slightly since Tuesday to 8,100 while the positivity rate has dropped to 20%, which means one in five tests have a positive result.
Moreover, Omicron BA.5 remains the dominant strain, accounting for 93.4% of all infections. The strain is considered to be no more infectious than the other Omicron subvariants but is effective at circumventing people’s accumulated immunity.
In the previous seven days, an average of 32,575 patients suffering from Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals each day – a 1% decrease from the previous seven days. This figure only includes the number of people hospitalised because of the virus.
Meanwhile, a total of 769 people in Belgian hospitals were infected with the virus on Thursday, almost 20 fewer than on Monday. The number of Covid-19 patients being treated in intensive care increased slightly since last week to 63.
This number does include patients admitted with a different condition who later tested positive.
