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Belgium has the highest number of daily coronavirus deaths per head of population of any country in the world, but ministers say this is only because they are more transparent with their data.
The European nation had reported 4,857 coronavirus deaths as of Thursday, an increase from 417 in 24 hours, despite having a relatively small population of 11.6 million people.
But, unlike many of its European neighbors, it is counting deaths outside the hospital and deaths in which the patient had coronavirus symptoms but had not been tested on those numbers.
These deaths represent almost half of Belgium’s total, which means that the true scale of deaths from coronavirus in other countries could double official figures if that trend is replicated elsewhere.
A graph showing the number of coronavirus deaths per day in countries compared to their population size. The line represents a seven-day moving average, which means it shows trends in the data rather than accurate figures. He reveals that Belgium has the highest rate in the world, but the minister says this is because they are more transparent with their data.
A gravedigger prepares a pit for burial at the Verrewinkel Cemetery in Brussels, Belgium, where work has tripled since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic
In fact, Belgium is considering producing a second lower daily total, which means it can be fairly compared to its European neighbors, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the latest report from the Belgian Federal Public Health Service, only 49% of the country’s total official deaths occurred in hospitals where cases of coronavirus had been confirmed.
Another 49 percent died in nursing homes, while about 1 percent of cases died at home or elsewhere.
Of the deaths that occurred in nursing homes, 94 percent had not been diagnosed with coronavirus but had suspicious symptoms.
This means that the country’s total death toll would almost have been cut in half, had it used the same methods as other European nations.
‘In Europe, no country counts like the others. We have the most detailed method, ‘Belgian Health Minister Maggie De Block told television channel LN24.
It comes after repeated warnings from officials in France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom that deaths in nursing homes are ignored, leading to a ‘hidden epidemic’.
In the UK alone, 4,000 people are believed to have died in homes from coronaviruses and are not among the country’s 13,729 total deaths.
A month ago, the mayor of the Italian city of Bergamo, at the epicenter of the country’s outbreak, issued a similar warning about care homes there.
Medical staff gather for a briefing in the hallway of a nursing home in Huesca, Spain, where 46 coronavirus patients were being treated until April 16.
An elderly patient with coronavirus is in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Vigo, northwest Spain, on April 16.
“There are a significant number of people who have died, but whose death has not been attributed to the coronavirus because they died at home or in a nursing home and therefore were not cleaned,” said Giorgio Gori
As of early April, France had also omitted nursing home data from its official count, before reporting an additional 1,416 nursing home deaths on April 3.
However, the figure was released with the caveat that a third of care homes had not yet reported data.
Meanwhile, regional government data leaked in Spain suggested that 57 percent of the country’s fatalities from the virus between March 8 and April 8 were in nursing homes, The Guardian reported.
Some doctors in Belgium have complained that deaths caused by hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other causes have been grouped under the COVID-19 category.
However, Emmanuel Andre, spokesman for the national health authorities, insisted that the general Belgian method of counting “is necessary”.
The virus specialist explained that “it is accepted practice to take suspicious cases into account” when tracking the spread of an epidemic.
COVID-19 deaths that were confirmed by a positive test have accounted for only about five percent of those reported by nursing homes so far, but Andre said that increasing testing at those facilities would raise the rate much more in next days.
It would also allow authorities to better measure the extent of the COVID-19 spread, he added.
Dr. Katharina Franz and paramedic Andreas Hankel attempt to resuscitate a coronavirus patient at a clinic in Hanau, Germany
Sociologist Geoffrey Pleyers said “an ethical and social human tragedy” had unfolded “unseen, behind the walls” of retirement homes, as Belgian officials focused on whether hospitals had intensive care capabilities for cope with the pandemic.
“What proportion of deaths could have been avoided if people had received hospital care” for other conditions, Pleyers asked in a comment published in the Le Soir newspaper.
The government plans to multiply by 10 the number of coronavirus tests provided to nursing homes.
But the 210,000-kit target “is not enough to test everyone,” said Vincent Fredericq, secretary general of Femarbel, the industry’s leading federation in French-speaking Belgium.
He said he cared for 160,000 residents across the country and employed 110,000 employees who were also potential vectors of the virus.
“In the Brussels region, 95 percent of staff use public transport, be it the subway, trams or buses, which are unfortunately good places to become contaminated,” said Fredericq.
