BRUSSELS, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Belgium will administer AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to people aged over 55, an inter-ministerial conference on health decided on Wednesday.
The decision followed the advice from the Superior Health Council, which had previously greenlighted the AstraZeneca vaccine for use among people older than 55.
"The opinion of the experts was perfectly clear. AstraZeneca is an excellent vaccine. It is an excellent vaccine also for the elderly," Frank Vandenbroucke, the country's health minister, said on local television RTBF on Wednesday.
The latest epidemiological data from the public health institute Sciensano showed that an average of 2,393 new infections per day was registered from Feb. 21 to Feb. 27.
During the week of Feb. 24 to March 2, an average of 151.6 new hospitalizations per day was recorded. Currently, 1,903 patients are hospitalized, 425 of them in intensive care.
To date, Belgium has recorded a total of 774,344 coronavirus cases and 22,141 deaths since the beginning of the epidemic.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 258 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 76 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 Tuesday. Enditem
