Number in hospital creeps up, new cases still high
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 in Luxembourg slowly crept up over the past week and new infections with the coronavirus rose from an already high level, a weekly update showed on Wednesday, as the pandemic flared up just ahead of the summer holiday season.
Six people were in regular hospital care between 5 and 11 July, up from three the previous week, although there was no increase in intensive care patients.
New infections, driven by the more contagious Delta variant, were up by 5% last week, with the disease generally affecting younger people: the average age of patients is now just under 28 years. The country also recorded its first new fatality linked to Covid in over a month. It was not clear whether the people who required hospital treatment had been vaccinated.
On Wednesday, there were 118 new infections, roughly the going rate of the past weeks, with 10 people in hospital, three of those in intensive care. Such numbers are still wel below those of the worst peak of the pandemic in October and November, when well over 700 new cases could come in each day.
Luxembourg dished out just over 37,000 vaccinations last week, of which 16,000 were second jabs. Over 60% of Luxembourg's entire population have now received at least one vaccine dose, with 40% having the full vaccine protection against Covid, according to research project Our World in Data.
The country now has enough vaccine shots for everyone who wants one, the health ministry told the Luxembourg Times last week. Vaccinations are now also available for children aged 12 or above and to foreign cross-border workers.
The Delta mutation now accounts for 6 out of 10 new cases, the National Health Laboratory said on Wednesday.
The flare-up of the pandemic in Luxembourg has put the country back on the danger map for European travel destinations, with the Grand Duchy listed as an orange zone again by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), indicating an higher presence of the virus.
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