Luxembourg's Ministry of Health, 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 23 to 29 January 2023 in relation to respiratory infections, namely COVID-19 and influenza (flu).
COVID-19
For the week in question, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 increased to 630 cases, up 14.5% from 550 cases the previous week. 52.5% of COVID-19 cases were reinfections (up from 48.6% the previous week).
There were three new COVID-19-related deaths during the week in question; the average age of the deceased was 79 years.
In hospitals, there were four new admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients to normal care (compared to twelve one week earlier). There were no patients in intensive care. The average age of hospitalised patients was 66 years.
Vaccinations
For the week of 23 to 29 January 2023, 289 COVID-19 doses were administered: nine people received a first dose, five received a second dose, 34 received a first additional dose compared to a complete vaccination schedule, 218 received a second additional dose and 23 received a third additional dose. No one received a fourth additional dose. The total number of vaccines administered as of Monday 30 January 2023 was thus 1,293,007.
A total of 474,943 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 remains open every Friday until 17 February 2023, from 10:00 to 16:00.
The Victor Hugo vaccination centre will close its doors from Friday 10 February 2023 at 19:00.
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 53.5% as of week 3 of 2023 (59.6% as of week 2). The recombinant XBB variant represented 14.7% as of week 3 (11.8% as of week 2).
Flu
For the week of 23 to 29 January 2023, the number of flu cases reported by laboratories increased to 182 cases, up 24% from 147 the previous week.
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).