COVID-19 cases - Weekly review: 9 - 15 August

For the week of 9 to 15 August, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 has decreased, for the 6th week in a row, from 404 to 295 cases (-27%), as well as the number of their identified close contacts, which dropped to 831, compared to 1,379 cases the week before (-40%).

Among the 295 new infections, 224 people were not vaccinated (75.9%) and 71 people had a complete vaccination pattern (24.1%).

Among hospital admissions, 66.7% of normal care patients and 83.3% of intensive care patients were not vaccinated.

The number of PCR tests performed during the week of 9 to 15 August has decreased from 36,025 to 29,243.

6 people reported a positive rapid antigen test (RAT) for the reporting week, compared to 5 the previous week, bringing the number of positive results performed by a health-care worker to a total of 277. Since the introduction of self-tests, 804 positive results have been reported (with 0 cases for the week of 9 to 15 August). It should be noted that positive RATs are not included in the calculation of the positivity rate.

As of 15 July, the number of active infections has decreased to 632 (from 783 as of 8 August), while the number of people healed increased from 72,787 to 73,230. The average age of those diagnosed as positive for COVID-19 has increased from 31.7 to 32.9 years.

For the week of 9 to 15 August, 3 new deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported.

In the hospitals, there were 14 new admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients in normal care, compared to 16 the previous week. The number of occupied beds in the intensive care unit remained stable at 6. The average age of inpatients increased from 52 to 60 years.

Positivity rate and incidence rate

For the reference period, the effective reproduction rate (R) decreased to 0.80 (compared to 0.97 the previous week). The positivity rate on all tests performed (prescription, Large Scale Testing, contact tracing) decreased from 1.12% to 1.01%. The positivity rate for tests carried out on prescription, i.e. for people with symptoms, decreased from 4.43% to 3.35%.

The incidence rate decreased in all age groups, with 46 cases per 100,000 residents over 7 days, compared to 64 cases per 100,000 residents in the previous week. This is the 6th week in a row for which a decrease can be observed.

The incidence rate decreased in all age groups, except for the 60-74 age group. The greatest decrease is recorded in the 0-14 years (-30%) and 15-29 year (-30%) age groups. The highest incidence rate is recorded in the 15-29 age group, with 80 cases per 100,000 residents.

Quarantine and isolation

During the week of 9 to 15 August, 886 people were in isolation (-15%) and 685 in quarantine (-13%).

Contaminations

For the 295 new cases, the family circle remains the most frequent source of transmission of COVID-19 infections with 28.4%, followed by travel abroad (21.8%) and leisure activities (7.9%). The rate of contamination for which the source is not clearly attributable decreased to 33.7%. Compared to the previous week, the number of cases/week has decreased for all sources except for leisure activities.

Vaccinations: update on the situation

For the week of 9 to 15 August, a total of 13,578 doses were administered. 3,088 people received a 1st dose, 10,410 a 2nd dose and 80 a 3rd dose, bringing the total number of vaccines administered as of 17 August to 747,315. 381,296 people have a complete vaccination pattern.

The evolution of the variants

Variant sequencing data are published every Friday 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 contamination level of the 13 analysed wastewater treatment plants sampled by the LIST (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) during the week of 9 to 15 August shows a high national prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 flux values. Compared to the previous week, a slight increase was observed, with a level of SARS-CoV-2 contamination similar to that measured at the beginning of July. 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)