Respiratory tract infections: Weekly review - 20 to 26 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 20 to 26 March 2023, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 decreased to 1.549 cases, compared to 1,767 cases the previous week (-12,3%). Among all those who tested positive, 58.2% were re-infected, compared to 56.2% the previous week.

There were 6 further deaths in connection with COVID-19 in the past week. ​

During this week there was an average of 19 confirmed COVID-19 positive patients hospitalised per day in normal care, compared to 17 the previous week. In intensive care, the number of occupied beds is 1. The average age of hospitalised patients is 65 years. 

Vaccinations: update on the situation

For the week of 20 March to 26 March 2023, a total of 72 doses were administered. 7 people received a 1st dose, 3 a 2nd dose, 10 people received one complementary dose to a full vaccination, 42 received a second complementary dose to a full vaccination and 10 received a third complementary dose to a full vaccination and 0 a fourth complementary dose to a full vaccination, raising the total number of vaccines administered as of 28 March 2023 to 1,293,260.

474,993 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 11 (50.0% also in week 10). The recombinant variant XBB.1.9, which becomes the second most frequent variant, represents 24.6% in week 11 (20.0% in week 10). 

Influenza

For the week of 20 to 26 March 2023, the number of influenza cases reported by laboratories decreased from 550 to 467 cases, a decrease of 15.1% 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/

From 1 April 2023, the weekly retrospective will be simplified

Following the recent adoption of the law amending the amended Law of 17 July 2020 on measures to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic and the decisions of the Government Council concerning the surveillance of the COVID-19 epidemic, the weekly review will, as of next week, provide a simplified overview of the evolution of acute respiratory infections and will only report the number of cases of COVID-19 and influenza.

On the site https://covid19.public.lu/fr.html the graphics and the daily situation report will no longer be updated.

The report on wastewater monitoring in Luxembourg under SARS-CoV-2 will no longer be published.

All previous CORONASTEP reports will still be 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)