COVID-19 cases - Weekly review: 21 - 27 June

During the week from 21 to 27 June, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 continued to increase slightly from 90 to 107 (+19%), while the number of their identified close contacts decreased from 396 cases the previous week to 353 (-11.1%).

The number of PCR tests performed during the week of 21 to 27 June has slightly decreased from 46,365 to 39,181.

17 people reported a positive rapid antigen test (RAT) for the reporting week, bringing the number of positive results performed by a health-care worker to a total of 211. Since the introduction of self-tests, 513 positive results have been reported, with no cases for the week of 21 to 27 June. It should be noted that positive rapid antigen tests are not included in the calculation of the positivity rate.

As of 27 June, the number of active infections has again decreased significantly to 142 (from 234 as of 20/06), while the number of people healed increased from 69,483 to 69,682. The average age of those diagnosed as COVID-19 positive has increased from 27.7 to 28.4 years.

The week of 21 to 27 June is the third consecutive week in which no new deaths related to COVID-19 have been recorded. This had not been the case since the week of 21 to 27 September 2020.

The situation remains relaxed in the hospitals, with 3 confirmed COVID-19 patients in normal care, compared to 6 the previous week. In intensive care the number of occupied beds remained stable at 2. The average age of hospitalised patients decreased from 64 to 60 years.

Positivity rate and incidence rate

For the reference period, the effective reproduction rate (R) increased from 0.58 to 0.92, as well as the positivity rate on all tests performed (prescription, Large Scale Testing, contact tracing) with 0.27% compared to 0.19% the previous week. A similar trend can be observed for the positivity rate for tests carried out on prescription, i.e. for people with symptoms, which increased from 0.58% to 0.95%.

The incidence rate also increased slightly, with 17 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 7 days, compared to 14 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for the week of 14 June.

Compared to the previous week, the incidence rate increased substantially in the 15-29 (+108%) and 45-59 (+40%) age groups. It should be noted that the 40% increase in the incidence rate in the 45-59 age group is due to 4 additional cases. A decrease is recorded in the 0-14 age group (-34%). The lowest incidence rate is recorded in the 60-74 and 75+ age groups, where no cases were recorded in the previous week.

Quarantine and isolation

For the week from 21 to 27 June, 287 people were in isolation (-38%) and 370 in quarantine (-28% compared to the previous week).

Contaminations

For the 107 new cases, the family circle remains by far the most frequent source of transmission of COVID-19 infections with 21.5%, followed by travel abroad (15%) and leisure activities (13.1%) and education (8.3%). The rate of contamination for which the source is not clearly attributable increased to 40.2%.

Vaccinations: update on the situation

For the week from 21 to 27 June, 44,062 doses were administered. 35,613 people received a 1st dose and 8,448 received a 2nd dose, bringing the total number of vaccines administered until 30 June to 542,793 (1st and 2nd dose). 232,222 people have a complete vaccination pattern.

The evolution of the variants

For technical reasons, the variant sequencing data could not be available in time for this weekly report. They will be published separately shortly on the website of the National Health Laboratory (Laboratoire national de Santé, LNS) https://lns.lu/en/departement/department-of-microbiology/revilux/.

Wastewater monitoring in Luxembourg as part of SARS-CoV-2 

The level of contamination of the 13 sampled wastewater treatment plants studied by the LIST (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) during the week of 21 to 27 June shows a constant downward trend for several weeks with a stabilisation of the signal for the last two weeks. A similar trend is observed at the level of individual wastewater treatment plants, with some of them showing contamination levels close to or below the detection limits. Analyses in the coming weeks should confirm this result.

All CORONASTEP reports are available on the LIST website: https://www.list.lu/en/covid-19/coronastep/.

Press release by the Ministry of Health, the Laboratoire national de santé (LNS) and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)