BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium revised the number of COVID-19 deaths in the country on Wednesday, as it is about to cross the mark of 10,000 deaths.
The health government has tested figures for nursing homes in the North Flanders region and discovered unreported deaths from COVID-19, some recorded twice and others caused by the new coronavirus. The net effect is a 121 relief.
The revision of the total death toll to 9,878 on Wednesday. Otherwise it would have been 9999.
Britain also reduced its death toll from the disease to more than 5,000 two weeks ago after the government followed a new way of counting deaths.
Belgium’s capita-consistent deaths from COVID-19 are among those in the world and report a proportion more consistent with the proportion of deaths in nursing homes than other countries, adding when the disease is suspected but not confirmed.
Belgian force spokesman COVID-19 and virologist Steven Van Gucht told Reuters TV that Belgium, the headquarters of EU headquarters and NATO, has been greatly affected.
“But if you compare Belgium to, for example, the UK or Spain, you see that they have been even more affected,” he said, adding that this is reflected in “excessive” mortality rates.
The number of new cases in Belgium has steadily increased, from a low of around 80, consistent with the day in early July, to an average of 490 for the week of 16 to 22 August, the number has been declining for 10 days.
Van Gucht said that about a fifth of the new infections gave the impression of having been contracted during the summer holidays. A new challenge would come from the reopening of schools and public exhaustion from some of the toughest measures in Europe.
“It’s a PreventionArray query . . . It’s to avoid a challenge that will only take place in a few weeks or months,” he said.
Reporting through Philip Blenkinsop and Clement Rossignol; Editing through Kirsten Donovan
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