Virologist Steven Van Gucht asks everyone to stay at home as much as possible. The next few days will be decisive, says the virologist. “Stay at home. Stay within your bubble. This is how we can reverse the trend ”
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Between 15 and 21 October, there were an average of 11,891 new coronavirus infections daily, an increase of 50 percent compared to the seven days before. A total of 305,409 people in our country have been infected with the virus since the start of the pandemic. The number of infections is increasing in all provinces.
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That number of infections is still very high, according to Van Gucht. “But the number of infections is increasing less quickly”, he concludes. That is a good thing, it sounds. Incidentally, it is still too early to determine whether the new test strategy has an influence on the number of infections.
433 hospital admissions
On average, nearly 433 people are hospitalized each day, an increase of 85 percent. On Saturday there were 590. “That is no longer from the peak of the end of March, the beginning of April,” says the Sciensano virologist. Currently, 4,401 corona patients are in hospital: almost twice as many as a week ago. Among them, 708 people are in intensive care, compared to 384 a week ago. If the current rate continues, that number of people in intensive care risks to rise to 1,000 within a week and to 2,000 by November 6. “Intensive care is the bottleneck. We have to see a change there, or it will be narrow ”.
“Avoid social contacts”
Van Gucht therefore asks everyone to stay at home and avoid social contacts with family or friends for a while. “We have to do more than what the government asks. This is how we can have the greatest impact. Stay at home. Stay within your bubble. Do not meet up with family or friends and do not go to meetings. Make it extra cozy in your household bubble. For people who live alone: only meet with one exclusive friend. In this way we can reverse the trend ”.
The number of deaths rose to 10,737. From October 15 to October 21, an average of 39.1 people died from COVID-19 every day. That is 11 more compared to the seven days before. On Friday, 74 people died from the virus.
The positivity ratio, the number of people who test positive in relation to the total number of tests, is now 18.3 percent.
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