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Luxembourg's Ministry of Health, the National Health Laboratory (Laboratoire National de Santé - LNS) and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) recently published a review of the week of 19 to 25 December 2022 in relation to respiratory infections.

This weekly review is aimed at offering a broader insight into respiratory viruses in general, including COVID-19 and influenza (flu).

COVID-19

For the week in question, the number of new COVID-19 infections increased to 1,656, up 13.1% from 1,464 the previous week. In addition, there were 1,073 reinfections, i.e. 39.3% of all positive cases, down from 1,110 (43.1%) the previous week.

There were eight new COVID-19-related deaths during the week in question; the average age of the deceased was 83 years.

In hospitals, there were 38 new admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients to normal care (compared to 39 one week earlier). There were two patients in intensive care. The average age of hospitalised patients was 67 years.

Vaccinations

For the week of 19 to 25 December, 778 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered: fourteen people received a first dose, twelve received a second dose, 70 received a first additional dose compared to a complete vaccination schedule, 647 received a second complementary dose and 35 received a third complementary dose; no one received a fourth complementary dose. The total number of vaccines administered as of Monday 26 December 2022 was thus 1,292,710.

A total of 474,898 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 new pop-up vaccination centre in the Belval Plaza shopping centre (first floor) in Esch-Belval will be open on Fridays 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 58.8% as of week 49 of 2022.

Flu

For the week of 19 to 25 December, the number of flu cases reported by laboratories increased to 2,551, up 84.5% from 1,383 cases the previous week. The number of flu cases currently exceeds the peak of the flu wave of spring 2022.

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).