Luxembourg's Ministry of Health, together with the National Health Laboratory (Laboratoire National de Santé - LNS) and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), has issued a COVID-19 retrospective for the period from 14 to 30 May 2021.

Last week, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 continued to decline, from 495 to 354 (down 28.5%). The number of their identified close contacts also fell 40.6% over one week. However, the number of PCR tests carried out during the week in question also fell sharply, from 72,118 to 44,490.

209 individuals tested positive following a rapid antigen test.

As of Sunday 30 May 2021, the number of active infections was down again with 878 (compared to 1,283 as of 23 May) and the number of people having recovered from the virus increased from 67,483 to 68,238. The average age of people diagnosed with COVID-19 remained stable at 32.6 years.

The number of weekly deaths (four) remained low, with the average age of those who died dropping to 71 (compared to 78 the week before).

In hospitals, there has been a further decrease in admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients in normal care, which fell from 28 to nineteen over one week. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care also fell from nineteen to thirteen. The average age of hospitalised patients remained stable at 58 years.

For the reference period, the effective reproduction rate (RT eff) remained stable at 0.81 (0.82 the previous week) and the positivity rate on all tests carried out edged up from 0.69% to 0.80% (average over the week). The same trend could be observed for the positivity rate on tests performed through a doctor's prescription (i.e. people with symptoms), with rose from 1.45% to 2.24%.

The incidence rate clearly continued its downward trend across all age groups, with 56 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (down from 78) over seven days. The 0-14 age group recorded the largest decrease (down 41%) over one week, followed by those aged 75 and over (down 40%). Over-75s had the lowest incidence rate with seven cases per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by the 60-74 age group with 24 cases. The 15-29 age group continued to have the highest incidence rate with 85 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

For the week of 24 to 30 May, 1,169 people were in isolation (down 29.7%) and 1,128 were in quarantine (down 40.6%).

The family circle remained the most frequent context of transmission of COVID-19 infections (46.2%), followed by the education environment (5.1%), leisure (3.7%), the workplace (2.7%) and travel abroad (2.3%). The source of infection was not clearly attributable in 38.8% of cases.

COVID-19 reporting on weekends

Luxembourg's Ministry of Health announced that, in view of the positive evolution of the health situation, it will no longer communicate data relating to COVID-19 on weekends, until further notice. This decision has been taken to allow a moment of respite for the hospital and monitoring teams.

Vaccinations: update

For the week of 24 to 30 May, a total of 25,682 vaccine doses were administered in Luxembourg (down from 34,967 the week before). This decrease is explained by the fact that fewer doses were delivered than expected to Luxembourg. 7,001 people received their first dose whilst 18,681 people received their second dose, bringing the total number of vaccinations administered as of 1 June to 356,322. A total of 135,558 people have been fully vaccinated.

Evolution of variants

For the week of 17 to 23 May 2021, population sequencing coverage was 66.3%, thus significantly higher than the optimal rate of 10% recommended by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for a representative sample.

Concerning the 495 samples carried out for week 20/2021, the following distribution can be observed:

  • the British (UK) variant (B.1.1.7) represented 76.5% of cases (down from 78.9% the previous week);
  • the Indian variant (B.1.617) represented 7.5% of cases (up from 3.8%);
  • the South African (SA) variant (B.1.351) represented 2.5% of cases (down from 5.9%);
  • the Brazilian variant (P.1) represented 2.2% of cases (down from 3.9%).

Wastewater monitoring 

Due to the public holiday last week, the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) only sampled wastewater from Friday 28 May 2021. These results will be published in next week's report.