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Luxembourg's Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth, the National Health Laboratory (Laboratoire National de Santé - LNS) and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) have published a review of the week of 26 December 2022 to 1 January 2023 in relation to respiratory infections, namely COVID-19 and influenza (flu).

COVID-19

For the week in question, the number of new COVID-19 infections decreased to 777, down 53% from 1,656 the previous week. In addition, there were 499 reinfections, i.e. 39.1% of all positive cases, down from 1,073 (39.3%) the previous week.

There were six new COVID-19-related deaths during the week in question (down from eight the previous week); the average age of the deceased was 77 years.

In hospitals, there were 30 new admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients to normal care (compared to 38 one week earlier). There were two patients in intensive care (the same number as the previous week). The average age of hospitalised patients was 66 years.

Vaccinations

For the week of 26 December to 1 January, 75 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered: one person received a first dose, one received a second dose, one received a first additional dose compared to a complete vaccination schedule, 67 received a second complementary dose and five received a third complementary dose; no one received a fourth complementary dose. The total number of vaccines administered as of Monday 2 January 2023 was thus 1,292,719.

Note that the Victor Hugo vaccination centre in Luxembourg-Limpertsberg was closed from 24 December 2022 to 2 January 2023.

A total of 474,899 people have a complete vaccination schedule, which corresponds to a vaccination rate of 79% of the eligible population (i.e. those aged five and over).

The pop-up vaccination centre in the Belval Plaza shopping centre (first floor) in Esch-Belval (opened on 23 December 2022) will be open on Fridays 6, 13 and 20 January 2023 from 10:00 to 16:00.

Other vaccination-related information is available online at https://impfen.lu/en/.

Variants

Data relating to the sequencing of COVID-19 variants are published in the REVILUX report on the LNS website: https://lns.lu/publications/. Currently, Omicron BQ.1 variants are in the majority, representing 68.7% as of week 51 of 2022.

Wastewater monitoring

Due to the Christmas and New Year periods, the next CORONASTEP report, published by LIST, is scheduled for Tuesday 10 January 2023 and will contain data for week 52 of 2022 and week 1 of 2023. All CORONASTEP reports are available on the LIST website: https://www.list.lu/en/covid-19/coronastep/.

Flu

For the week of 26 December to 1 January 2023, the number of flu cases reported by laboratories decreased to 897, down 65% from 2,552 the previous week. According to the authorities, part of this decrease is probably due to an indirect effect of the Christmas holidays and so it will be necessary to wait for the data of the following weeks to confirm whether the peak of the epidemic has already been reached.

The LNS microbiology department, in collaboration with the Health Directorate and a network of sentinel general practitioners and paediatricians spread across the country, carries out sentinel surveillance every year. Data relating to this are published in the REVILUX report on the LNS website (see above).