The second wave of the corona epidemic appears to have been contained in time so as not to overwhelm the Belgian intensive care units. The number of IC patients will not grow after this week, expects the Belgian counterpart of the RIVM, and there is still plenty of room.
There are now 1,469 Belgian corona patients in intensive care, virologist Steven Van Gucht of Sciensano said Monday morning. This is “well above the first wave, but remains below the maximum capacity” of 2000 ic beds.
Looking back, the peak in the number of infections has been behind us for almost two weeks, says Van Gucht. A week later, the number of patients who ended up in hospital also started to decrease. Now that the virus is less likely to spread among older Belgians, he is counting on the fact that fewer people will end up in intensive care or die.
In order to stop the rapid revival of the virus, Belgium already took some measures in mid-October, such as a curfew, and two weeks later even virtually shut down public life. “A sharp decline started relatively quickly after the peak,” but there is no room to lean back yet, says Van Gucht. “We are coming from very high marks and we will have to keep going down much further to get back to a safe level.”
The other news:
Withininland:
Abroad:
- Pfizer: corona vaccine according to early study results 90 percent effective
- Hungary announces partial lockdown
- Sydney adjust famous fireworks show due to coronavirus. The spectacle continues, but only lasts a few minutes.
- For the second day in a row, the number (16,017) of new German corona cases is decreasing
- Curfew in much of Portugal, including Lisbon and Porto
Financial-economic:
Sport:
Entertainment and personal:
Read the corona news back from Sunday, November 8.
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