For the week of 16 to 22 August, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 has increased from 295 to 440 cases (+49%), as well as the number of their identified close contacts, which increased to 887, compared to 831 cases the week before (+7%).
Among the 440 new infections, 331 people were not vaccinated (75.2%) and 109 people had a complete vaccination pattern (24.8%).
Among hospital admissions, 64.7% of normal care patients and 100% of intensive care patients were not vaccinated.
The number of PCR tests performed during the week of 16 to 22 August has decreased from 29,243 to 28,107.
3 people reported a positive rapid antigen test (RAT) for the reporting week, compared to 6 the previous week, bringing the number of positive results performed by a health-care worker to a total of 280. Since the introduction of self-tests, 804 positive results have been reported (with 0 cases for the week of 16 to 22 August). It should be noted that positive RATs are not included in the calculation of the positivity rate.
As of 22 August, the number of active infections has increased slightly to 660 (from 625 on 15 August), while the number of people healed increased from 73,237 to 73,640. The average age of those diagnosed as positive for COVID-19 has decreased from 32.9 to 31.2 years.
For the week of 16 to 22 August, 2 new deaths related to COVID-19 have been reported.
In the hospitals, there were 18 new admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients in normal care, compared to 14 the previous week. The number of occupied beds in the intensive care unit decreased from 6 to 4. The average age of inpatients dropped from 60 to 51 years.
Positivity rate and incidence rate
For the reference period, the effective reproduction rate (R) increased to 1.16 (compared to 0.81 the previous week). The positivity rate on all tests performed (prescription, Large Scale Testing, contact tracing) increased from 1.01% to 1.57%. The positivity rate for tests carried out on prescription, i.e. for people with symptoms, increased from 3.35% to 4.92%.
The 7-day incidence rate increased to 69 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 46 per 100,000 inhabitants the previous week.
Compared to the previous week, the incidence rate increased in all age groups except for the 60-74 year olds. The greatest increase was recorded in the 0-14 (+100%), 45-59 (+57%) and 30-44 (+51%) age groups. A decrease was recorded in the 60-74 age group (-12%).
The 15-29 age group has the highest incidence rate with 104 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Quarantine and isolation
During the week of 16 to 22 August, 886 people were in isolation (-5%) and 661 in quarantine (-4%).
Contaminations
For the 440 new cases, travel abroad became the most frequent source of transmission of COVID-19 infections with 38.4%, followed by the family circle (25.2%) and leisure activities (3.1%). The rate of contamination for which the source is not clearly attributable decreased to 27.9%.
Vaccinations: update on the situation
For the week of 16 to 22 August, a total of 8,170 doses were administered. 3,367 people received a 1st dose, 4,755 a 2nd dose and 48 a 3rd dose, bringing the total number of vaccines administered as of 25 August to 756,266. 387,266 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 12 analysed wastewater treatment plants sampled by the LIST (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) during the week of 16 to 22 August shows a high national prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 flux values. A significant increase was again observed at the beginning of the week with a higher SARS-CoV-2 contamination level than measured in early July. However, this trend was not confirmed at the end of the week. The plants in the north of the country were once again the most affected by this increase.
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)