“The corona situation continues to evolve favorably.” This is what virologist Steven Van Gucht said at the weekly press conference of the National Crisis Center. “All corona figures are still declining, except for people in their twenties in Flanders, where we still notice a slight increase.”
“Partly because of this, the decrease in infections is continuing less quickly than in recent weeks,” explains the virologist. “This translates into a slight increase in the R-value (the reproduction number, ed.). However, the R-value remains well below 1, which means that the epidemic is shrinking.”
Omikron variant BA.1
“The omikron variant BA.1 still represents the majority of infections, 61 percent. The omikron variant BA.2 is advancing further and now accounts for 34 percent of the infections,” says Van Gucht. The delta variant also reappears here and there, accounting for about 5 percent of the infections.
Also read:
OVERVIEW. Corona figures continue positive trend
“Due to the recent and future easing, it is possible that the infections will decrease further less quickly and eventually increase again, as we are already noticing among people in their twenties in certain Flemish provinces,” says Van Gucht, who mainly works in West Flanders. , Antwerp and Flemish Brabant have seen a slight increase in this age group.
“However, due to the high level of immunity among the population, we do not expect that to lead to new problems in healthcare in the coming weeks or months.”
Code yellow
The number of hospital admissions falls by 27 percent: an average of 131.7 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized last week. The National Crisis Center expects us to dive below 65 hospital admissions by March 20. “By then we can meet both conditions for code yellow,” says Van Gucht.
Read everything about the coronavirus in this file.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.