BRUSSELS, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of coronavirus infections in children aged between 0 to 9 years has increased by 84 percent in one week in Belgium, Yves van Laethem, inter-federal spokesperson for the fight against COVID-19 in Belgium, told reporters on Tuesday.
This increase is much less marked -- 18 percent -- in adolescents aged between 10 and 19 years, he said.
"Almost one out of five contaminations is currently diagnosed in children or teenagers. This reflects the fact that we currently have a broad screening strategy in place on clusters in schools," he explained.
"Due to the increased contagiousness of the new variant of the coronavirus, elementary school children who were sitting next to an index case in the classroom or dining hall will now be considered high-risk contacts," said Karine Moykens, chair of the Interfederal Committee on Testing and Tracing.
Until now, children have been considered low-risk contacts. "With the new variant of COVID-19, which has increased contagiousness, all age groups, including children, are now affected," Moykens said.
Several schools are being forced to close due to the increase in cases. But "the current situation in no way justifies changing the strategy," several sources were quoted by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir as saying. "We have five or six schools closed out of 2500."
The number of contaminations and hospitalizations has been increasing in Belgium. Between Jan. 16 and Jan. 22, an average of 2,120 new infections per day was reported by the public health institute Sciensano.
Last week (Jan. 19 to Jan. 25), the average daily number of hospitalizations was 135.3, an increase of 17 percent compared to the previous week.
Currently, 1,958 patients are hospitalized, 324 of them in intensive care. To date, Belgium has recorded a total of 694,858 COVID-19 cases and 20,814 deaths.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 237 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 64 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Jan. 22. Enditem
