The Belgian number of Covid-19 deaths totalled 3,903 yesterday, with 2,069 (about 53 percent) passing away in hospital. If you take into account Belgium's population of about 11 million, this equals 181 certain corona deaths per million inhabitants. This puts Belgium well below Italy, and closer to the U.K. and the Netherlands, although these are still performing better, about 10 percent (Netherlands) or 20 percent (France).



The Belgian virologist Steven Van Gucht has no explanation for the worse Belgian score, but says it's important to wait until the pandemic is finished to have a global view. However, he says that the fact that Belgium is densely populated country, may be a factor that is playing against us. Belgium's population density is about 20 times higher than France, but on the other hand it is lower than in the Netherlands and these still have a better score.

Meanwhile, it turns out that hardest region in Italy, Lombardy, is also the most densely populated.