After almost nine months of being a red area, Belgium turns orange again, given the sharp decrease in the number of coronavirus infections. This is evident from the figures published by the Sciensano Health Institute on Monday. The European Centre for Disease calls on every Thursday, for all of the states with the most up to date COVID numbers, and then, on the basis of data on the map of Europe, with the revised codes will be posted.
Since Tuesday’s figures are expected to be slightly lower than Monday’s, it is almost certain that Belgium will be turned from red to Orange after almost nine months on Thursday. Only four European countries currently have higher coronavirus rates than Belgium. These are Lithuania, Latvia, The Netherlands and Denmark. A country like Germany is well on its way to becoming a green zone.
There is also a lot of concern for, among other things, the Indian variant, which is still on the rise. The road to freedom seemed to be in sight for the British, but now that the infectious Delta variant is firmly in place and corona rates are rising day after day, the British have to postpone ‘Freedom Day’ by four weeks. Boris Johnson had to return on his steps. This new variant accounts for no less than three out of four new infections in the country.
Three million Belgians have already been fully vaccinated, which is no less than 33 percent of adults over 18 years of age. And 60.9 percent already had their first shot. Even though you have been vaccinated, testing remains extremely important to monitor the situation.
The vaccines against COVID-19 have proven (by whom exactly? – ed.) to be exceptionally effective, but no vaccine can provide 100% protection. Monitoring and describing the infections that occur in fully immunised individuals, the so-called” Breakthrough infections”, provides valuable information on the effectiveness of the vaccines.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, Sciensano has been closely monitoring the occurrence of infections that occur in fully vaccinated individuals, or “breakthrough infections”. Of a total of 1,421,067 fully immunised subjects, only 0.32% (4,526) contracted COVID-19 infection. In addition, more than two thirds of these breakthrough infections did not cause symptoms similar to COVID-19. These results are an important indication of the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines in Belgium.
