The coronavirus in Belgium caused the hospitalization of an additional 203 people on Thursday. Experts predicted that we have not yet reached the peak of the epidemic in our territory. When could we get there? Yves Van Laethem, infectious disease specialist at CHU Saint-Pierre, believes that the curve could start to decrease less during the next week.
Everyday, patients are arriving with increasing caution in hospitals. The coronavirus is a fight, a fight, which has just started. “The coming days are going to be particularly intense for health care, because people who were infected before major containment measures will only arrive in the coming days. What we know today is that we are at the start of the epidemic “, says Emmanuel André, Covid-19 inter-federal spokesperson.
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The number of hospitalizations continues to increase
It’s only a beginning. On March 12, the day the very first measures were announced, Belgium recorded 27 hospitalizations. Since then, it continues to increase, with 837 hospitalizations in total this Thursday.
Places in hospitals: a situation always under control
In total, today, 164 people are in intensive care, 114 on respiratory assistance. But for the moment, hospitals are not saturated. “There is a capacity in Belgium of 1900 hospital beds where people can be helped to breathe if necessary. Compared to the number of people who today require this type of care, we are still in a situation which is under control “, explains Emmanuel André.
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When is the peak of the epidemic?
There are still some unknowns: when is the peak of the epidemic? And what will be its record? It is obviously too early to say. The containment measures were taken more quickly than in Italy, and respecting them, this may allow Belgian hospitals not to be overwhelmed. “We knew that this exponential phase was coming, it is clearly underway”, comments Yves Van Laethem, infectious disease specialist at CHU Saint-Pierre in Brussels, guest in the RTL INFO 19H. “We know that we will have more tomorrow, that we will have more the day after tomorrow and we hope to start to have a thrill in the decrease in this curve at the beginning of the week. But I think that if it increases, we will not will not be too worried yet. It is from the middle or the end of next week that we hope to have a change – not a decrease in the curve – that is to say, it will increase less ” .
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