5 ms·

It's the same in Belgium. At some point half of the deaths came from care homes. Here they even restrict workers to a certain floor or area in the care homes.

Tepix 6y ago
Why are there so many deaths in Belgium? It‘s terrible!
- jariel 6y ago
  Belgium is counting anyone who dies with covid-like symptoms as a covid death, even without a test. So while everyone else is probably underreporting, Belgium is overreporting.
  - NicoJuicy 6y ago
    Correct Our minister of health is a doctor ( although she is ridiculed in public media because of her weight), it led to overreporting Covid cases. A pure politician would probably want to underreport.
- AlexanderDhoore 6y ago
  I can't answer this. But I heard that Belgium actually counts cases differently from other countries. We also count the deaths of people that have not been tested but who are strongly suspected to be Covid-19. Whereas other countries only count those who actually tested positive. https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/news/belgium-says-transparency-explains-high-virus-death-toll/ https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/news/belgium-sa...
  - 1_player 6y ago
    I've heard "actually counts cases differently from other countries" for at least 3 other European countries. I don't think that phrase means very much.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - NicoJuicy 6y ago
      Yes it does, since Belgium was the first one to do it like this. It's possible that other countries now also count this way, but I'm not aware of that/haven't heard it. So, I don't think that other countries count the same way. Our way of counting has an average of 2 * more deaths in statistics. Since we count suspected cases as confirmed in the statistics. It's a huge difference. -- What are the other countries + sources then? I have only seen it mentioned ( and mentioned it myselve) for Belgium.
      - 1_player 6y ago
        I've heard it often in both British and Italian media to explain why their figures are higher than neighbouring countries, using the same exact reason: we (did) count suspected cases as confirmed. Not saying you're wrong, just pointing out the fact that all these figures have huge margins of errors and we'll know the true extend of it when we'll be way past it.
        NicoJuicy 6y ago
        I checked some resources and none mentions Britain or Italy counting suspected cases. I only did Belgium that does this. What is your source of information? Not saying you are wrong, but according to me, Belgium is the only one that does it like this. Even after looking it up, I can't find something that says what you are claiming
  - neurostimulant 6y ago
    This is why I don't trust my country's (Indonesia) total death count. The official total death count is 1613. For a 4th most populous country with very high population density (in Java island, the most populous island in the country) with poor self-quarantine discipline, I find it hard to believe only 1613 people die of covid19 so far. It is likely due to low volume of testing and not counting death unless they're tested positive. Also, anecdotally there seem to be a widespread flu early this year where a lot of people in my circle (including myself) were getting more severe than usual flu-like syndrom. I suspect covid19 was arrived earlier but there is no way to prove it unless most of the population get tested, which is unlikely given how limited the testing here. These days the citizen can get tested but they must pay it themselves unless they are identified as highly suspected individuals by country's tracing orgs, and the test is too expensive for most people here, costing almost 1/4 minimum wage.
    - redis_mlc 6y ago
      FYI: there was a powerful, contagious flu in SE Asia (outside China) as early as Dec. 15 that was probably corona. If you're in Jakarta, what time did you get sick, and were there any other reported flu types in late 2019 or early 2020?
      - neurostimulant 6y ago
        Yeah, people in my circle were starting to get some heavy flu around early 2020, around late January 2020 if I remember correctly. I myself caught the flu around early March. Covid test kit was still rare at that time period so I just stay at home. Not sure if I that was covid or not, the only way to find out is probably by doing antibody test which I'm reluctant to do as I'll have to visit a hospital for that. Hospitals here are closing their non-essential services to try to limit the number of people going in and out of the hospital.
- toyg 6y ago
  Probably a bit of overreporting as others said, but also because it’s a very compact, dense, urban country with a large transient population moving between other heavily-affected areas (France and Netherlands).
- NicoJuicy 6y ago
  Belgian counts every possible Covid related death, even if it's not confirmed to be Covid. This frees resources to do something more useful and stress health care less, since we don't test deaths. We just count them as a possible Covid case and add it into the statistics. Roughly, it seems that halve of the cases are Covid related. So we have the worst case scenario in statistics every time, the only downside is that not everyone knows this and it seems way worse then it is for them. Even Trump doesn't seem to know this :) Source: I'm from Belgium and informed ;)

Tepix 6y ago

Why are there so many deaths in Belgium? It‘s terrible!

jariel 6y ago
Belgium is counting anyone who dies with covid-like symptoms as a covid death, even without a test. So while everyone else is probably underreporting, Belgium is overreporting.
- NicoJuicy 6y ago
  Correct Our minister of health is a doctor ( although she is ridiculed in public media because of her weight), it led to overreporting Covid cases. A pure politician would probably want to underreport.
AlexanderDhoore 6y ago
I can't answer this. But I heard that Belgium actually counts cases differently from other countries. We also count the deaths of people that have not been tested but who are strongly suspected to be Covid-19. Whereas other countries only count those who actually tested positive. https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/news/belgium-says-transparency-explains-high-virus-death-toll/ https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/news/belgium-sa...
- 1_player 6y ago
  I've heard "actually counts cases differently from other countries" for at least 3 other European countries. I don't think that phrase means very much.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - NicoJuicy 6y ago
    Yes it does, since Belgium was the first one to do it like this. It's possible that other countries now also count this way, but I'm not aware of that/haven't heard it. So, I don't think that other countries count the same way. Our way of counting has an average of 2 * more deaths in statistics. Since we count suspected cases as confirmed in the statistics. It's a huge difference. -- What are the other countries + sources then? I have only seen it mentioned ( and mentioned it myselve) for Belgium.
    - 1_player 6y ago
      I've heard it often in both British and Italian media to explain why their figures are higher than neighbouring countries, using the same exact reason: we (did) count suspected cases as confirmed. Not saying you're wrong, just pointing out the fact that all these figures have huge margins of errors and we'll know the true extend of it when we'll be way past it.
      - NicoJuicy 6y ago
        I checked some resources and none mentions Britain or Italy counting suspected cases. I only did Belgium that does this. What is your source of information? Not saying you are wrong, but according to me, Belgium is the only one that does it like this. Even after looking it up, I can't find something that says what you are claiming
- neurostimulant 6y ago
  This is why I don't trust my country's (Indonesia) total death count. The official total death count is 1613. For a 4th most populous country with very high population density (in Java island, the most populous island in the country) with poor self-quarantine discipline, I find it hard to believe only 1613 people die of covid19 so far. It is likely due to low volume of testing and not counting death unless they're tested positive. Also, anecdotally there seem to be a widespread flu early this year where a lot of people in my circle (including myself) were getting more severe than usual flu-like syndrom. I suspect covid19 was arrived earlier but there is no way to prove it unless most of the population get tested, which is unlikely given how limited the testing here. These days the citizen can get tested but they must pay it themselves unless they are identified as highly suspected individuals by country's tracing orgs, and the test is too expensive for most people here, costing almost 1/4 minimum wage.
  - redis_mlc 6y ago
    FYI: there was a powerful, contagious flu in SE Asia (outside China) as early as Dec. 15 that was probably corona. If you're in Jakarta, what time did you get sick, and were there any other reported flu types in late 2019 or early 2020?
    - neurostimulant 6y ago
      Yeah, people in my circle were starting to get some heavy flu around early 2020, around late January 2020 if I remember correctly. I myself caught the flu around early March. Covid test kit was still rare at that time period so I just stay at home. Not sure if I that was covid or not, the only way to find out is probably by doing antibody test which I'm reluctant to do as I'll have to visit a hospital for that. Hospitals here are closing their non-essential services to try to limit the number of people going in and out of the hospital.
toyg 6y ago
Probably a bit of overreporting as others said, but also because it’s a very compact, dense, urban country with a large transient population moving between other heavily-affected areas (France and Netherlands).
NicoJuicy 6y ago
Belgian counts every possible Covid related death, even if it's not confirmed to be Covid. This frees resources to do something more useful and stress health care less, since we don't test deaths. We just count them as a possible Covid case and add it into the statistics. Roughly, it seems that halve of the cases are Covid related. So we have the worst case scenario in statistics every time, the only downside is that not everyone knows this and it seems way worse then it is for them. Even Trump doesn't seem to know this :) Source: I'm from Belgium and informed ;)