COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium

The COVID-19 pandemic was first confirmed to have spread to Belgium on 4 February 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium
Map of Belgium and its provinces with the spread of COVID-19 as of 12 May 2020[1]
Confirmed cases per 10.000 inhabitants by province (as of 18 April 2020)   < 23   23–30   30–37   37–44   44–51   51+
Disease	COVID-19
Virus strain	SARS-CoV-2
Location	Belgium
First outbreak	Wuhan, Hubei, China[2]
Index case	Brussels
Arrival date	3 February 2020 (5 years, 6 months and 3 days ago)
Confirmed cases	54,288[nb 1][3]
Recovered	14,111[nb 2][3]
Deaths	8,903[3] (including 3,721 suspected cases) [nb 3] 4,242 in hospitals (including 187 suspected cases)
Government website
www.info-coronavirus.be

Cases

The first case was when a Belgian national out of a group of nine Belgians came from Wuhan to Brussels was reported to have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.^[4][5]

The disease spreading within Belgium was then confirmed early March, and was linked to holidaymakers returning from Northern Italy at the end of the half-term holidays.^[6][7]

As of 14 May 2020, there had been 54,288 confirmed cases reported by the Belgian authorities, with a total of 8,924 deaths and 14,111 discharged patients. As of 14 May, 1,966 people in Belgian hospitals were suffering from COVID-19, including 407 in intensive care.^[8] The actual number of victims could have been higher due to limited testing.^[9]

Notes

1. The actual number of infections is estimated to be much higher than the number of cases confirmed by a laboratory test.
2. The official reports do not refer to recovered people but to discharged patients.
3. The total number of death cases in Belgium also includes suspected death cases, including those in foster and care homes where only 23% of the reported death cases have been confirmed as CoVID-19 positive.
   
   It is important to note that in many other countries, the reported deaths following a CoVID-19 infections are only accounted for when they occur in hospital. This is an important note for comparison purposes.