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AThe map from the EU infection control authority shows Belgium as a single dark red spot. The number of corona infections reported in the last two weeks was 139 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In the European Union, the country belongs to the upper group; only Spain, the Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg and Malta have even higher values. But as protection measures are intensifying again in many countries, Belgium, with its 11.5 million inhabitants, is taking an unusual path: it is re-easing restrictions. “Our country is moving from crisis management to risk management,” current Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès said after a meeting of the National Security Council. “We are learning to live with the risk of the coronavirus in our society.” Many Belgians were relieved, but experts warned that the government was sending the wrong signal.
Thomas gutschker
Political correspondent for the European Union, NATO and the Benelux countries based in Brussels.
Before neighboring countries, Belgium issued new regulations in the summer to stop the virus. In July, the numbers in Antwerp literally exploded, where a night curfew was imposed. Restaurants and bars had to close at 11pm
In early August it was Brussels’s turn. The capital region imposed a general obligation to wear protective masks in all public spaces, including when riding a bicycle. While infections fell rapidly in Antwerp, only the increase slowed in Brussels. The cafes and restaurants were full and the distance was hardly maintained. All parts of the city are now colored dark red. However, the mask requirement will be removed on October 1. Mayors should only enforce them in densely populated areas. It had already started at the end of July. At that time, the situation became so confusing – the capital region consists of 19 independent communities – that no one knew where to wear a mask and where not to. That could happen again now.
Relaxed contact restrictions
Belgians are being freed from the unloved “bubble” they were supposed to move into until now: a household was only allowed close contact with five people per month. The new rule is: each person can have five close contacts, that is, twenty in a family of four. Requirements for weddings are also becoming more flexible. In the future, an unlimited number of guests may be invited as long as they sit at tables of ten people one and a half meters apart. This is also the case in restaurants and cafes. Quarantine requirements are also being relaxed. Previously, two weeks were mandatory if someone had contact with a person who tested positive. In the future, one week will be sufficient, as long as the test result is negative at the end of the week. One of the first beneficiaries is likely to be the president of the EU Council, Charles Michel, who went into quarantine on Tuesday and wants to catch up with the European Council that was postponed next week.
“A lighter measure that is observed is better than a drastic one that no one follows,” Wilmès said to justify the relaxation. Respected virologist Marc Van Ranst did not immediately agree. “The National Security Council wanted relaxation, but reality has overtaken us,” he said on Flemish television. In a few weeks he expects “big problems”. Epidemiologist Marius Gilbert withdrew from the government’s expert council, purportedly for professional reasons alone. But he also said goodbye with the warning that now the impression should not arise that there were no more restrictions.
