‘A small delay in the increase of infections should inform us …

The figures continue to rise, but virologist Steven Van Gucht also sees positive signs: “There is a slight delay in the increase.” The Crisis Center hopes this can encourage us to persevere. ‘With the necessary efforts, we can bend the curve again within ten days.’ The new test strategy is also further explained.

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“It is too early to be able to see an effect of the measures now,” warns virologist Steven Van Gucht at the press conference of the National Crisis Center. That does not prevent the Crisis Center from reporting that the increase is slowing down slightly. While the numbers doubled every seven days last week, they now do every nine days. The figures continue to rise: the weekly average is now almost 9,000 infections per day. ‘This slightly positive signal should therefore mainly encourage us to persevere’, Van Gucht concludes. ‘With the necessary efforts, we can bend the curve again within ten days.’

The virus is still primarily circulating between 20 and 30 year olds: 20 percent of infections occur in this age group. More worrying is the big increase among the over-70s. The number of infections doubles among them week after week. In the past seven days, 790 infections were diagnosed among them, compared to 300 the week before. The crisis center expects this increase to translate into an increase in hospital admissions.

Liège and Hainaut have dethroned Brussels. The figures continue to increase strongly at 93 and 81 percent on a weekly basis. In Brussels, this is 37 percent compared to the week before. This may be due to the measures, but Van Gucht points out that the test capacity is under pressure. The number of confirmed infections is therefore probably also a considerable underestimate of the effective number. The Crisis Center in West Flanders sees the fastest increase, but the total number of infections is significantly lower than the other Belgian provinces.

Liège, Brussels and Hainaut are responsible for 60 percent of hospital admissions across the country. The number of admissions doubles every other week, the number of people on intensive care units doubles every nine days. For reference, 411 new withdrawals were counted yesterday, about two-thirds of the number of withdrawals per day in the peak of the first wave. The crisis center expects that we will have at least 1,000 patients on intensive care units by the end of the month. Without measures, that figure would rise to 2,000 in the second week of November.

On average, there were 32 covid deaths per day in the past week. Wednesday October 14 and Monday October 19 are peaks with 42 and 40 deaths respectively.

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