40 DAYS WITH LOCKDOWN IN BELGIUM - SOME FACTS


APRIL 27:
Today it is 40 days since the lockdown in Belgium started.  It was on March 18. It has been – and still is – a very strict lockdown. And it has also been managed very systematically.  It has now to some extent given the intended results. The number of infected people in hospitals is going down, and so is the number of deaths.  At the same time the testing has been very active – and it will be further strengthend in the near future. 
Yesterday the main figures were:

Total number of infected:    46.134

Total number of cured:           9.800

Total number of deaths:         7.094  ( of which more than half happened in the Nursing Homes )
Many people ask:  Why are the figures so relatively high in Belgium compared to other countries, esp. in the number of deaths?
I do not have a full reply.  The Belgians say that the high number of infected is caused by the fact that a lot of tests have been made. And then you, of course, find more of the infected people.  
About the high number of deaths a part of the explanation is that the Belgians include all deaths in their figures, if there is the slightest suspicion that corona infection might be involved. And they also include all deaths in the nursing homes.  This is not the case in many other countries. In Germany you only include those deaths, where you have a corona positive result. In this way the Belgian figures will be higher than those of other countries. A Belgian expert said the other day that you probably have to reduce the Belgian figures with 50%, if you want to compare with the figures in other countries.
If you want to follow the development in each country, including Belgium, you can easily do so every day on this website:    https://newsnodes.com  
Another frequent question is:  Is the mortality rate higher than normal?   In Belgium about 110.000 persons normally die every year. A special web site follows the mortality in many countries in details:
EUROMOMO  ( MOMO = “mortality monitor” ):  https://www.euromomo.eu


You can find a lot of information in figures and overviews on this site.
Tomorrow I will write about the step-by-step abolition of the lockdown, which the Belgian authorities decided last Friday to happen from Monday, May 4 to Monday, June 8  ( if all goes well ).


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