Government measures to contain the pandemic and self-restraint by the Belgians have yielded noticeable results.
In Belgium, the government’s targeted policy to curb the pandemic and citizens’ compliance with self-restraint in two weeks reduced the incidence of COVID-19 by 61% — to 688.1 cases every 100 thousand population. This was stated by the Belgian medical research institute Sciensano reports The Brussels Times on Friday, November 20.
At the beginning of November, Belgium was among the most infected European countries with an average of 1609 patients per 100 thousand population.
This week, on average, 372 new patients were admitted to hospitals daily with COVID-19 infection, down 25 percent from last week. In total, there are 5650 coronavirus patients in Belgian hospitals (247 fewer yesterday), of which 1284 are in intensive care units, 837 are connected to ventilators.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, the number of people infected in Belgium has reached 550,264. During the same period, the country conducted 5,600,827 tests, of which more than 28,000 were done daily last week, with an average rate of positive tests of 18.7 percent. Since October 21 in Belgium, tests are done only for those people who have severe symptoms of the disease. Starting next Monday, everyone who needs it will be able to get tested again.
Earlier, the Prime Minister of Belgium said that the quarantine in Belgium will last until vaccination. A decrease in the incidence of coronavirus will not be a reason for weakening quarantine, Alexander de Croo warned.
