The pandemic has already been accompanied by an enormous amount of informational content, so it might be useful to take a step back and look at the developments from a different angle.
Luxembourg’s National Laboratory for Health (“Laboratoire Nationale de Santé”) is a public institution under the umbrella of the Ministry of Health. Compromised of various scientific and administrative departments, its mission is to deliver data-oriented analyses of developments within the health sector. The research domains are based around hygiene, human medicine, aliment control, medicament control, and toxicology.
Currently, the Laboratory is channelling its resources to aid hospitals in their testing procedures of Covid-19.
Apart from this practical support, the institution is maintaining its annual service of providing weekly data sets concerned with the influenza season, spanning from October to April. This undertaking is done in collaboration with the national department of microbiology, the administration of health, as well as general practitioners, who provide insight into the circulation of influenza viruses and aid in their classification.
The weekly data sets include two different symptoms, diagnosed throughout the country over the period of seven days: acute respiratory infections (ARI) and influenza-like illnesses (ILI). Each update is accompanied by two graphical representations of diagnosed infections, comparing the current influenza season to the previous one.
Cases of Covid-19 are included in the category of influenza-like illnesses, and a rise in cases can be seen in the first half of March, in comparison with the 2018/2019 season.
For further information and a detailed outline of the weekly developments of the influenza season, please consider the below websites provided by the National Laboratory for Health.
