COVID-19 cases - Weekly review: 5 - 11 July

For the week of 5 to 11 July, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 has increased from 787 to 828 cases (+5%), as did the number of their identified close contacts, which rose to 2,890, compared to 2,228 cases the week before (+30%).

The number of PCR tests performed during the week of 5 to 11 July has increased from 35,374 to 43,284.

17 people reported a positive rapid antigen test (RAT) for the reporting week (compared to 10 in the previous week), bringing the number of positive results performed by a health-care worker to a total of 238. Since the introduction of self-tests, 786 positive results have been reported, with 91 cases for the week of 5 to 11 July (compared to 182 reports the previous week). It should be noted that positive rapid antigen tests are not included in the calculation of the positivity rate.

As of 11 July, the number of active infections has increased to 1,547 (from 825 as of 4 July), while the number of people healed increased from 69,786 to 69,891. The average age of those diagnosed as positive for COVID-19 has decreased from 28.9 to 27.9 years.

One new death in connection with COVID-19 is to be deplored.

In the hospitals, there were 6 new admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients in normal care, compared to 3 the previous week.

The number of patients in intensive care remained stable at 1. The average age of hospitalised patients decreased slightly from 46 to 45 years.

Positivity rate and incidence rate

For the reference period, the effective reproduction rate (R) decreased from 2.10 to 0.93, as well as the positivity rate on all tests performed (prescription, Large Scale Testing, contact tracing) with 1.91% compared to 2.22% the previous week. The positivity rate for tests carried out on prescription, i.e. for people with symptoms, decreased from 5.94% to 4.49%.

Nevertheless, the incidence rate increased, with 130 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 7 days, compared to 124 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for the week of 28 June.

Compared to the previous week, the incidence rate increased in all age groups except for the 30-44 year olds, which shows a slight decrease (-5%). The greatest increase was recorded in the 0-14 age group (+76%). A slight increase was recorded in the 15-29 (+2%), 45-59 (+5%) and 60-74 (+6%) age groups.
​It should be noted that 80% of all cases last week were recorded in the 15-29 and 30-44 age groups. The lowest incidence rate is recorded in the 75+ and 60-74 age groups.

Quarantine and isolation

During the week of 5 to 11 July, 1.563 people were in isolation (+165%) and 2.576 in quarantine (+44%).

Contaminations

For the 828 new cases, the family circle is once again the most frequent source of transmission of COVID-19 infections with 22.5%, followed by leisure activities (20.3%), education (7.1%) and travel abroad (6.5%). The rate of contamination for which the source is not clearly attributable decreased from 38.7 to 33.2%.

Vaccinations: update on the situation

For the week of 5 to 11 July, a total of 37,143 doses were administered. 20,766 people received a 1st dose and 16,377 a 2nd dose, bringing the total number of vaccines administered as of 14 July to 626,289 (1st and 2nd dose). 279,242 people have a complete vaccination pattern.

The evolution of the variants

Variant sequencing data are published every Friday on the website of the National Health Laboratory (Laboratoire national de Santé, LNS) https://lns.lu/en/departement/department-of-microbiology/revilux/.

Wastewater monitoring in Luxembourg as part of SARS-CoV-2 

The level of contamination of the 13 sampled wastewater treatment plants studied by the LIST (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) during the week of 5 to 11 July shows a level of contamination identical to that of the previous week. A similar trend is observed at the level of individual treatment plants. Analyses in the coming weeks should confirm this result.
​All CORONASTEP reports are 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)

Last update