Respiratory tract infections: Weekly review - 27 February to 5 March 2023

The weekly retrospective gives you a broader overview of respiratory viruses in general: including COVID-19 and influenza.

COVID-19

During the week of 27 February to 5 March 2023, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 increased to 1,606 cases, compared to 1,409 cases the previous week (+14.0%).

Among all those who tested positive, 52.3% were re-infected, compared to 53.4% the previous week.

One new death in connection with COVID-19 is to be deplored.

The age of the deceased person is 94 years.

During this week there was an average of 16 confirmed COVID-19 positive patients hospitalised per day in normal care, compared to 10 the previous week. In intensive care, the number of occupied beds is 0. The average age of hospitalised patients is 71 years.

Vaccinations: update on the situation

For the week of 27 February to 5 March 2023, a total of 79 doses were administered. 4 people received a 1st dose, 6 a 2nd dose, 8 people received one complementary dose to a full vaccination, 56 received a second complementary dose to a full vaccination and 5 received a third complementary dose to a full vaccination and 0 a fourth complementary dose to a full vaccination, raising the total number of vaccines administered as of 28 February 2023 to 1,293,188.

474,978 people have a complete vaccination pattern, which corresponds to a vaccination rate of 79% of the eligible population (i.e. the 5+ population).

The evolution of the variants

Variant sequencing data are published in the REVILUX report on the website of the National Health Laboratory (Laboratoire national de Santé, LNS)  https://lns.lu/publications/

Currently the recombinant variant XBB.1.5 is the most frequent representing 46.1% in week 8 (35.5% in week 7). The Omicron BQ.1 variant represents 22.6% in week 8 (26.4% in week 7).

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

The CORONASTEP report is published every 15 days.

According to the latest CORONASTEP report drawn up by the LIST (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology), the contamination level of the 13 wastewater treatment plants analysed during the 8th and 9th week of 2023 shows a high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. At the national level, the level of contamination observed during week 8 was very similar to those observed during the last two months, but a significant increase was observed during week 9. At the local level, this increase is almost general, but particularly marked in the treatment plants of Beggen, Petange, Bettembourg, Mersch and Bleesbruck and Grevenmacher.

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

Influenza

For the week of 27 February to 5 March 2023, the number of influenza cases reported by laboratories increased to 318 cases from 304 cases in the previous week, an increase of 4.6% compared to the previous week. Currently the influenza B virus is predominant.

The microbiology department of the LNS, in collaboration with the Health Directorate and a network of sentinel general practitioners and paediatricians throughout the country, carries out annual influenza sentinel surveillance.

Data on the influenza sentinel are published in the REVILUX report on the National Health Laboratory website LNS  https://lns.lu/publications/

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