Respiratory tract infections: Weekly review - 13 to 19 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 13 to 19 March 2023, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 has slightly decreased to 1,767 cases, compared to 1,784 cases the previous week (-1.0%). Among all those who tested positive, 56.2% were re-infected, compared to 54.6% the previous week.

There were 2 further deaths in connection with COVID-19 in the past week.

During this week there was an average of 17 confirmed COVID-19 positive patients hospitalised per day in normal care, compared to 19 the previous week. In intensive care, the number of occupied beds is 0. The average age of hospitalised patients is 68 years.

Vaccinations: update on the situation

For the week of 13 March to 19 March 2023, a total of 93 doses were administered. 4 people received a 1st dose, 5 a 2nd dose, 13 people received one complementary dose to a full vaccination, 59 received a second complementary dose to a full vaccination and 11 received a third complementary dose to a full vaccination and 1 a fourth complementary dose to a full vaccination, raising the total number of vaccines administered as of 21 March 2023 to 1,293,235.

474,988 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 50.0% in week 10 (50.8% in week 9). The recombinant variant XBB.1.9, which becomes the second most frequent variant, represents 20.0% in week 10 (16.5% in week 9).

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 10th and 11th week of 2023 shows a high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. At the national level, the level of contamination measured during weeks 10 and 11 was very similar to that of week 09, but a decreasing trend was highlighted during week 11. At the local level, the same trends are observed.

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

Influenza

For the week of 13 to 19 March 2023, the number of influenza cases reported by laboratories increased to 532 cases from 397 cases in the previous week, an increase of 34.0% 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)