70% adults fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in Belgium

Seventy percent of adults in Belgium, roughly 6.5 million people, have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the Sciensano institute for public health said here on Friday, reported Xinhua.

In Wallonia, Brussels and the country's German-speaking community, the percentages of fully vaccinated adults are 69, 53 and 68, respectively, compared to 73 percent in Flanders.

Meanwhile, the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP) has received 24,943 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccines administered.

Most of these reactions were deemed normal, but 6,014 cases were classified as "serious" by the FAMHP, causing temporary incapacity to work or inability to leave the house.

Based on an examination of clinical disorders prior to vaccination, only four deaths are considered likely to be vaccine-related, the Belgian online news website 7sur7 reported.

Most adverse reactions involved fever, muscle pain, a feeling of discomfort, swelling or redness at the injection site.

In the week of July 20-26, an average 1,469 new COVID-19 infections were recorded per day in Belgium, a four percent increase from the previous week.

Since the onset of the pandemic, 1,122,951 COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed in Belgium.

Between July 23 and July 29, new hospital admissions averaged 33.1 per day, up 23 percent from the previous referral period.

On Thursday, 318 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, 93 of them in intensive care.