The weekly retrospective gives you a broader overview of respiratory viruses in general: including COVID-19 and influenza.
COVID-19
During the week of 2 to 8 January 2023, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 decreased to 568 cases, compared to 777 cases the previous week.
In addition, 431 people were re-infected, representing 43.1% of all those who tested positive, compared to 499 (39.1%) the previous week.
7 further deaths in connection with COVID-19 are to be deplored.
The average age of the deceased is 81 years.
In the hospitals, there were 23 new admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients in normal care, compared to 30 the previous week. In intensive care, the number of occupied beds is 5. The average age of hospitalised patients is 70 years.
Vaccinations: update on the situation
For the week of 2 to 8 January 2023, a total of 699 doses were administered. 6 people received a 1st dose, 12 a 2nd dose, 76 people received one complementary dose to a full vaccination, 581 received a second complementary dose to a full vaccination and 23 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 10 January 2023 to 1,292,815.
474,913 people have a complete vaccination pattern, which corresponds to a vaccination rate of 79% of the eligible population (i.e. the 5+ population).
Vaccination pop-up in Esch-Belval
In order to facilitate the possibility of getting vaccinated, a vaccination pop-up is open on Fridays until 17 Februaury 2023 from 10 am to 4 pm in Esch-Belval in the Belval Plaza shopping centre on the 1st floor.
The list of all vaccination possibilities can be consulted on the following website: www.covidvaccination.lu
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 Omicron BQ.1 variants dominate, representing 75.1% in week 52. The XBB variant represents 4.7% in week 52 (7.6% in week 51)
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 51th week of 2022 and 1st week of 2023 still shows a high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater at national level. The current trend is downwards with a decrease in SARS-CoV-2 genome flows observed over the last three weeks.
All CORONASTEP reports are available on the LIST website:
https://www.list.lu/en/covid-19/coronastep/
Influenza
For the week of 2 to 8 January 2023, the number of influenza cases reported by laboratories decreased to 491 cases from 911 cases in the previous week, a decrease of 54% compared to the previous week. A first peak of the flu epidemic seems to have been reached.
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)