During the week from 31 May to 6 June, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 continued to decrease for the 10th week in a row from 354 to 324 (-8.5%), while the number of their identified close contacts increased from 766 cases the previous week to 908 (+18.5%).
The number of PCR tests performed during the week of 31 May to 6 June has increased from 44,490 to 47,272.
217 people reported a positive rapid antigen test.
As of 6 June, the number of active infections has decreased to 675 (compared to 883 on 30 May), while the number of people healed increased from 68,233 to 68,763. The average age of those diagnosed as COVID-19 positive increased slightly from 32.6 to 33.9 years.
The number of new deaths remained low, with 2 deaths related to COVID-19. The average age of the deceased decreased to 57 years.
The decline continues in hospitals with a decrease from 19 to 15 admissions of confirmed COVID patients in normal care. In intensive care, the number of occupied beds also decreased from 13 to 4. The average age of hospitalised patients remains stable at 55 years.
Positivity rate and incidence rate
For the reference period, the effective reproduction rate (R) remained stable at 0.89 (compared to 0,82 during the previous week), and the positivity rate on all tests performed (prescriptions, Large Scale Testing, contact tracing) slightly decreased from 0.80% to 0.69% (weekly average). A similar trend can be observed for the positivity rate for tests carried out on prescription, i.e. for people with symptoms, which decreased from 2.25% to 1.92%.
The incidence rate clearly continues its downward trend for all age groups, with 51 cases per 100,000 residents over 7 days, compared to 56 cases per 100,000 residents for the week of 24 May. Compared to the previous week, the incidence rate has decreased for the age groups 0-14 years (-10%), 15-29 years (-9%) and 45-49 (-3%). The 75+ age group continues to have the lowest incidence rate with 9.6 cases per 100,000 residents, followed by the age group 60 to 74 years, with 24 cases per 100,000 residents. The 15-29 age group has the highest incidence rate with 80 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Quarantine and isolation
For the week from 31 May to 6 June, 836 people were in isolation (-28%) and 789 in quarantine (-30% compared to the previous week).
Contaminations
For the 324 new cases, the family circle remains by far the most frequent source of transmission of COVID-19 infections with 35.1%, followed by leisure activities (5.1%) and travel abroad (3.9%). The rate of contamination for which the source is not clearly attributable increased to 50%.
Vaccinations: update on the situation
For the week of 31 May to 6 June, 43,934 doses were administered, almost double the amount of the previous week. 22,769 people received a 1st dose and 21,165 received a 2nd dose, bringing the total number of vaccines administered until 8 June to 406,570 (1st and 2nd dose). 163,500 people have a complete vaccination pattern.
The evolution of the variants
For the week of 24 to 30 May, population sequencing coverage was 55.4%.
Regarding the 354 samples carried out for calendar week 21/2021, the following distribution of variants can be observed:
- the Alpha variant (UK) B.1.1.7 represents 66% of cases, compared to 76.1% for week 20
- the Delta variant (Indian) B.1.617.2 represents 16.3% of cases, compared to 7.5% for week 20
- the Beta variant (South African SA) B.1.351 represents 2.8% of cases, compared to 2.5% for week 20
- the Gamma variant (Brazilian) P.1 represents 2.1% of cases, compared to 2.2% for week 20
Wastewater monitoring in Luxembourg as part of SARS-CoV-2
The contamination level of the 13 analysed waste water treatment plants by the LIST (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology), during the weeks 21 and 22 indicates a constant decrease over the past weeks with a stabilisation of the last recorded data. This result will have to be confirmed by the analyses performed in the coming weeks.
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)