Europe: The number of the new COVID-19 infection is continuously increasing at a stable rate as well as has now surpassed 5,500 new cases per day, which is similar to the situation in mid-April this year.
An average of 5,518 new daily new COVID-19 infections were identified between June 25 and July 1, there is a 44 percent increase from the previous seven days, as per the Sciensano Institute of Public Health on Tuesday morning.
Moreover, the average number of tests taken per day also increased to almost 18,800, up by more than 3,000 since the figures were previously updated last Friday. The positivity rate has increased slightly to 30.1 percent, which means nearly one in three tests has a positive result.
The Omicron BA.5 has become the dominant strain, accounting for 66.5 percent of all infections. BA.5 variant of COVID-19 is no more or less infectious than the other subtypes of the Omicron, but it does succeed very well in circumventing people’s accumulated immunity.
Deaths as a result of infection are not also increasing are now also rising more rapidly. During a similar week, an average of 7.9 percent of patients suffering from COVID-19 died every day, which has increased by 67 percent from the previous week.
Along with this, the total number of deaths in Belgium since the start of the pandemic amounts to 31,952. However, this figure includes individuals who died of another reason but who happened to be infected, meaning that this is an overestimate of deaths attributed to COVID-19.
In the previous seven days, an average of 119 patients suffering from COVID-19 were admitted to area hospitals each day. Seventeen percent has increased in the last seven days.
In addition, the figure, which was last above 100 in mid-May, reflects how many people are admitted to the area hospital directly because of the virus, not those who are admitted with another condition and then also test positive for COVID-19.
