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 week of 7 to 13 June 2021.

During this period, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 continued to decline for the eleventh consecutive week, from 324 to 189 (down 41.6%). The number of their identified close contacts also fell over one week, from 908 to 742 (down 18.2%).

The number of PCR tests carried out last week dropped slightly, from 47,273 to 45,745.

230 individuals tested positive following a rapid antigen test.

As of Sunday 13 June 2021, the number of active infections was down again with 500 (compared to 677 as of 6 June) and the number of people having recovered from the virus increased from 68,761 to 69,127. The average age of people diagnosed with COVID-19 remained relatively stable at 33 years.

The week of 7 to 13 June was the first week in which no COVID-19-related deaths had been recorded since that of 21 to 27 September 2020. Two deaths were recorded the previous week.

In hospitals, there has been a further decrease in admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients in normal care, which fell from fifteen to twelve over one week. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care halved, from four to two. The average age of hospitalised patients remained stable at 54 years.

For the reference period, the effective reproduction rate (RT eff) decreased from 0.89 to 0.69 and the positivity rate on all tests carried out fell from 0.69% to 0.41% (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), which fell from 1.91% to 1.19%.

The incidence rate clearly continued its downward trend across all age groups, with 30 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (down from 51) over seven days. Compared to the previous week, the incidence rate decreased by between 40% and 60% in age groups under 60 years old. Over-75s recorded six cases, up from 2.4 cases the previous week. The 15-29 age group continued to have the highest incidence rate with 44 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (down from 80 the week before).

For the week of 7 to 13 June, 686 people were in isolation (down 18%) and 663 were in quarantine (down 16%).

The family circle remained the most frequent context of transmission of COVID-19 infections (45.5%), followed by travel abroad (5.8%) and leisure (4.8%). The source of infection was not clearly attributable in 39.1% of cases (down from 50% the previous week).

Vaccinations: update

For the week of 7 to 13 June, a total of 50,111 vaccine doses were administered in Luxembourg. 17,426 people received their first dose whilst 32,685 people received their second dose, bringing the total number of vaccinations administered as of 15 June to 452,571. A total of 197,036 people have been fully vaccinated to date.

Evolution of variants

For the week of 31 May to 6 June 2021, population sequencing coverage was 45.1%.

Concerning the 324 samples carried out for week 22/2021, the following distribution can be observed:

  • the Alpha (British) variant (B.1.1.7) represented 47.4% of cases (down from 66% in week 21);
  • the Delta (Indian) variant (B.1.617) represented 30.9% of cases (up from 15.4%);
  • no new cases of the Beta (South African) variant (B.1.351) were detected (3.1% in week 21);
  • no new cases of the Gamma (Brazilian) variant (P.1) were detected (2.1% in week 21).

Wastewater monitoring 

The level of contamination of the thirteen sampled wastewater treatment plants studied by LIST has shown a constant downward trend in recent weeks, with some showing contamination levels close to or below the detection limits. Analyses in the coming weeks should confirm this result.