332 patients in intensive care
After a day without an update, and a longer wait than usual; the figures for the coronavirus epidemic in Belgium have finally been updated by Sciensano.
They should be taken with great caution because Monday, the traditional “peak” day for cases like admissions this year was a public holiday, and experts believe that people are also less likely to get tested during the holidays.
On the other hand, this has less influence on the number of patients in intensive care, which has been rising sharply for several days, with now 332 beds occupied, the highest number recorded since June.
The averages of the number of detected cases and admissions for Covid-19 remain on the rise, but, while being cautious about the period, this increase seems to continue to decrease, as observed before the holidays.
The positivity rate is also keen to decrease a little, even if it remains high: it has fallen from 9.8% before the holidays to 9.6% today.
The consolidated figures of the Sciensano table
Note: these figures are taken from updated data published by Sciensano in open data and put in table form here.
Cases detected¹ : between 24/10 and 30/10, 7640 new coronavirus infections were detected on average every day. This is an increase of 37% from the previous week.
Testing : between 24/10 and 30/10, an average of 83.100 tests were performed daily.
Admissions : they amount on average to 150.6 between 10/27 and 11/02. This is an increase of 24% from the previous week.
Hospitalized people² : 1788 patients are currently hospitalized in connection with Covid-19, including 332 patients treated in care is intensifying.
Positivity rate³ : based on the results of the tests obtained between 20/10 and 26/10, it is 9.6%, up 0.9% from last week.
Reproduction rate : calculated on the basis of changes in admissions, the Rt of the coronavirus today stands at 1.12. When it is greater than 1, it means that the transmission of the virus is accelerating.
Death : between 24/10 and 30/10, 19.7 people died on average from the virus. Since the start of the epidemic, 26,061 people have died from the coronavirus.
¹ The cases detected are the number of patients for a positive test confirmed the presence of the virus. The date that is considered is the date of the diagnosis, not the test result. Data is considered consolidated after 4 days. The number of cases may depend in part on the testing strategy: if we test more systematically, we also detect more cases.
² Hospitalized patients include patients who have already been hospitalized for another reason and who have tested positive.
³ The positivity rate is the number of tests compared to the number of positive tests carried out. The same person can be tested several times. It also depends on the testing strategy: if we do not test enough, the positivity rate will be higher.