The only downside is that the virus reproduction rate (calculated on the basis of the number of hospitalizations) was, like the day before, above 1 (1.03, against 1.02 the day before), which means that the epidemic is progressing again. For nearly a month, this Rt rate had been below 1, a sign that the epidemic was diminishing.
But why did this reproduction rate suddenly increase from 0.94 on January 18 to 1.02 then 1.03? Asked by Free, Yves Van Laethem, infectious disease specialist and interfederal spokesperson for Covid-19, thinks it is a “purely technical epiphenomenon” linked to the sharp increase in the number of daily hospital admissions observed on January 19 (on average over the previous seven days).
No links with the new variants
While we were around a hundred hospitalizations per day (100 on the 16th, 77 on the 17th, 98 on the 18th), we suddenly went to 183 on January 19, a marked increase for which the virologist n has no explanation. “But it will recover”, predicts Dr Van Laethem. Hospitalizations have been declining since, with 141 on January 20 and 123 on the 21st.
No concern therefore in the head of the interfederal spokesperson, who believes that the Rt should soon return to under 1. According to him, there should in any case be no link with the progression of the new variants (British and South African ) of the virus on Belgian territory.
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