Number of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations continues to decline in Belgium: Reports

The number of COVID-19 infections & hospitalisations continues to decline after being up for the weeks. But still, the number of deaths due to infection continues to remain high.

Between the period of July 19 to 25, an average of 4,071  new daily COVID-19 infections were noted, a 35% decrease from the last seven days, as per figures released by the Sciensano Institute of Public Health on Friday.

The average number of tests taken per day has dropped to around 13,800. The positivity rate remains high compared to one month ago and sits at 32.2%, meaning almost one in three tests has a positive result.

Omicron BA.5 remains the dominant strain, which accounts for 76.3% of all infections. The strain is referred to be no more or less infectious than the other Omicron subvariants, but it does succeed very well in circumventing people’s accumulated immunity. The original Omicron strain accounts for 16.5%.

While other major indicators have started dropping, deaths as a result of infection remain relatively high: almost 13 Covid-19 patients died each day over the past seven days – up by 14% from the previous week.

The overall number of deaths in Belgium since the beginning of the pandemic amounts to 32,228. However, this figure includes people who died of another cause but who happened to be infected, meaning that this is an overestimate of deaths attributed to Covid-19.