Belgium’s Foreign Ministry Affairs has asked the Netherlands and Germany to review their mandatory quarantine measures for the province of Antwerp, various media outlets reported.
Since 29 July, anyone travelling to the Netherlands from the province of Antwerp in Belgium has had to comply with a ten-day quarantine.
In Germany, too, the province has been classified as a risk region since 5 August. This means that anyone who travels to Germany after having stayed in Antwerp for the previous two weeks must submit to a quarantine failing a negative Covid-19 test.
"On the basis of a request from the governor of the province of Antwerp, Foreign Affairs has asked Berlin and The Hague to contact the local authorities," confirmed Marie Cherchari, deputy spokesperson for the Federal Public Service (FPS) Foreign Affairs.
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The two countries also require quarantines for travellers coming from the Brussels Region, but "this issue has not yet been addressed,” according to Cherchari.
Antwerp currently has an incidence of 67 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and the Brussels Region has an incidence of 65.
Overall, Belgium has counted 85,487 cases since the start of the coronavirus crisis, and 9,897 have died from the virus, according to the Sciensano Public Health Institute.
Germany, for comparison, has counted 243.599 confirmed cases and 9,302 deaths according to the Robert Koch Institute, and the Netherlands has counted 70,596 confirmed cases and 6,215 deaths according to the World Health Organisation.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
