Illustration of a coronavirus testing center in Deurne, Belgium, July 24, 2020. -

Shutterstock / SIPA

Belgium passed the milestone of 100,000 infections with the new coronavirus on Sunday, after a marked acceleration in positive tests in recent weeks, as in many European countries, figures from the Sciensano public health institute reveal.

This country of 11.5 million inhabitants recorded 100,748 cases of Covid-19 and 9,944 deaths on Sunday, against a background of increasing tests.

In the leading peloton of European states 

Belgium is, with Spain and Sweden in particular, in the leading group of European states with the most contaminations.

It showed this weekend about 8,600 cases per million inhabitants against 6,800 in France, according to figures compiled by AFP.

While the contaminations curve had been flattened in June, there were around 40,000 new cases in Belgium over the three summer months, a rebound starting to take place from the end of July.

A clear acceleration over the past 15 days

According to data from Sciensano, the trend accelerated markedly in the first half of September, reaching the milestone of a thousand new infections every day on average, during the week of September 9 to 15 (for 32,255 tests carried out daily average, i.e. a positivity rate of 3.4%).

This number of infections represents a jump of 77% compared to the previous week (around 600 cases per day), according to Sciensano.

On the day of September 14 alone, 1,717 cases were diagnosed.

We have to go back to mid-April to find such figures.

A record number of 2,336 new cases had been recorded on April 10, at a time when mortality was also peaking.

On the other hand, no rebound in mortality

This upsurge in infections in September is not accompanied by a rebound in mortality because the vast majority of those tested positive are under the age of 60, experts explain.

The hospitalization curve is picking up less quickly and the death curve remains relatively flat.

There have been between two and five deaths per day for the past month.

However, with nearly 10,000 deaths, Belgium is one of the European countries most bereaved by the pandemic.

From the start, the authorities opted for a broad census, also including deaths potentially due to the virus without a test having necessarily been able to confirm it.

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  • epidemic

  • Covid 19

  • Belgium

  • Health

  • Coronavirus