Reported flu cases in Luxembourg; Credit: MSAN/LNS/LIST

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 6 to 12 February 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 908 cases, up 8.7% from 835 cases the previous week. 50.0% of COVID-19 cases were reinfections (down from 50.7% the previous week).

There were two new COVID-19-related deaths during the week in question; the average age of the deceased was 86 years.

In hospitals, there were thirteen new admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients to normal care (compared to five one week earlier). There were two patients in intensive care. The average age of hospitalised patients was 65 years.

Vaccinations

For the week of 6 to 12 February 2023, 320 COVID-19 doses were administered: three people received a first dose, nine received a second dose, 37 received a first additional dose compared to a complete vaccination schedule, 261 received a second additional dose and ten received a third additional dose. No one received a fourth additional dose. The total number of vaccines administered as of Monday 13 February 2023 was thus 1,293,101.

A total of 487,960 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).

All 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, the Omicron BQ.1 variant remains dominant, representing 42.7% during week 5 of 2023 (40.3% during week 4). The recombinant XBB.1.5 variant represented 29.8% during week 5 (18.4% during week 4).

Flu

For the week of 6 to 12 February 2023, the number of flu cases reported by laboratories increased from 211 to 237, i.e. an increase of 12.3% compared to 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).