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In Belgium, the rapid spread of the corona virus is apparently causing a fatal shortage of doctors. “The situation is catastrophic,” said Philippe Devos, an intensive care physician at CHC Montlégia hospital in Liège, according to the Washington Post.
Liège is therefore the most affected city in Belgium. Many of the doctors and nurses are infected or quarantined, Devos said, in some clinics it is up to a quarter of the medical staff. “Starting this week, people who tested positive were asked to return to work if they were asymptomatic,” said Devos, who is also president of the Belgian Federation of Medical Unions. “We are in it.”
The exact circumstances of the reported incident – that doctors should go to work if they test positive but show no symptoms – are unclear. Due to the exact uncertain duration of infectivity, one must be sure that one is no longer contagious before returning to work. The Robert Koch Institute in Germany recommends that people with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection should complete isolation no earlier than ten days after the first detection of the pathogen. In situations of acute shortage of personnel in the medical field, a shortening of the isolation of ten days can be considered in individual cases, but subject to conditions: “after 48 hours without symptoms and two negative PCR examinations with at least 24 hours of difference”. .
The “Brussels Times” reported on Friday on the case of a police officer from around the Belgian city of Charleroi who was supposed to be working despite a positive test. According to the report, the professional association SLFP was “very concerned” by the decision that the policeman should not remain in quarantine. However, according to a police spokesman, Corona’s regulations stipulate that “a positive and asymptomatic employee has instructions to go to work.”
Clinics are 87 percent occupied
Last week, Belgium’s hospitals were 87 percent full, according to the Washington Post. But April’s highs could soon be exceeded if the number of infections continues to rise. In April, there was no country in the world in which, relative to the number of inhabitants, more people died from Covid-19 than in Belgium. Some Belgian hospitals are now warning that they are almost as busy as during the first wave.
He was “angry that we couldn’t avoid this envisioned scenario,” wrote Marc Noppen, director of the Brussels University Hospital, one of the capital’s largest hospitals. Last week it announced that it would expand the capacity of the intensive care unit.
According to the newspaper report, Belgium actually has good intensive medical care for its citizens, only a quarter of the intensive care beds are currently occupied by Covid 19 patients. But for the beds to be usable as well, it is required trained staff to care for patients there. The first hospitals have already raised the alarm about it, warning that their intensive care beds would be useless if all staff were sick. Researchers in the public health field also predict that capacity limits will be reached too quickly due to understaffing.
The situation is worse than in April, Christie Morreale, health minister for the French-speaking region of Wallonia, said on television on Friday. He called on nurses, students in the field, and medical students to get involved in a nursing home or hospital if they had a few hours to spare. “They need your support there.”
According to the newspaper report, the infrastructure for testing is also on edge. Belgium no longer tests people without symptoms, even if they have had contact with someone who is infected.
Pools, cinemas, museums have to close
Infection figures spiraled out of control, said Rudi Vervoort, Brussels’ prime minister, on Saturday when the new measures were announced. He identified the risk of collapse of the hospital system as the main problem. The Belgian government had already ordered the closure of pubs and restaurants across the country, a nightly curfew from midnight to 6 a.m., strict contact restrictions and a comprehensive home office work requirement. The Brussels regional government has now sharpened this for the capital.
For example, as of Monday in Brussels, a mask is mandatory everywhere, the nightly curfew starts at 10 pm instead of midnight, as announced by Prime Minister Rudi Vervoort. Swimming pools, sports clubs and fitness studios will have to close, as will theaters, cinemas and museums. Home work is compulsory as far as possible. Y: Children cannot move from door to door on Halloween.
The culture industry is “in shock”, writes the “Brussels Times” newspaper. “There is a total lack of coherence,” criticized Cathy Min Jung, director of the Le Rideau theater in Brussels. He complained that the same measures would not apply in the Walloon Region, in Brussels and at the national level. “Honestly, I am angry about these measures.” Michael De Cock, director of the Royal Flemish Theater, was more understanding. The decisions are “dramatic, but not as dramatic as what happens in hospitals,” he wrote on Twitter.
56 percent more infections than in the previous week
Last week, Belgium posted a new record with 15,432 corona infections in one day. The number was registered for Tuesday (October 20), the Belgian news agency reported, citing the Sciensano state health institute. The previous daily high was 12,969 (October 18).
Belgium has only 11.5 million inhabitants and still has a higher number of new infections than Germany with around 83 million people. The EU epidemic authority, ECDC, reported 1,115.6 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days for Belgium. In Germany there were 118.8 new infections, about one-tenth the value of Belgium.
According to Belga, the trend is still very upward: on average, Sciensano registered 11,201 new infections in the seven days from October 14 to 20, 56% more than the previous week. The figures for the following days have not yet been consolidated.
