Lhe number of Covid-19 cases has been steadily increasing since the beginning of June, according to the latest weekly report from the Belgian public health institute Sciensano on respiratory diseases. The figures released Wednesday confirm a rising test positivity rate, now at more than 12%.
A total of 608 new cases of covid-19 were diagnosed during the week of June 9 to 15, an increase of more than 50% compared to the first week of June. Last year, the number of weekly cases in mid-June was around 300, before a rebound that started in July and reached a peak of more than 2,700 new weekly cases at the end of August.
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A rebound that is confirmed
The positivity rate, i.e. the ratio between the number of tests carried out and the number of positive results, increased to 12.5% over the last period observed compared to 9.6% during the first week of June. This is the highest rate recorded since last January, confirming a rebound in Covid-19. A similar increase was already noted last summer.
The reproduction rate of the virus, or the number of people infected with Covid-19 from a positive case, is 1,309. This rate must be below 1 so that the virus no longer spreads.
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What is the majority symptom?
The JN.1 variant was reported as the majority in Belgium since December 2023, according to molecular surveillance compiled by Sciensano. The data surrounding the presence of a new variant in recent weeks has not yet been analyzed. In several European countries and the United States, the new KP2 and KP3 subvariants, derived from JN.1 and the family called “FLiRT”, are considered the main culprits for a resumption of positive cases of covid-19 .
The cause: an “immune decline” of the population, but also “an immune escape” of the new sub-variants of the virus, all members of the omicron JN.1 lineage. The spike protein, which allows SARS-CoV-2 to enter host cells, appears to have key mutations in these variants.
