While society is mostly back to normal with Belgium in 'code yellow' on the coronavirus barometer, Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke warns that the crisis is not yet over.
The admission of Covid-19 patients to hospital is slowly rising again and some hospitals are already postponing non-urgent care, but the earlier warnings – from himself or infectious disease expert Erika Vlieghe – are seemingly not listened to, Vandenbroucke said in an interview with De Morgen.
"I am not entirely at ease, we really should not forget that this virus is still going around. It is difficult in some hospitals," he said. "It is good that people realise that: it is a reason to be careful, but not to go back to 'code orange' tomorrow. Still, if the situation were to deteriorate significantly now, orange would be back on the agenda."
Vandenbroucke regrets that the Covid Safe Ticket (CST) did not remain in use a little longer, as he said it would have supported the booster campaign.
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"One should not underestimate how important the CST was as a motivation to get vaccinated. As soon as the CST was no longer compulsory, vaccination stopped," he said. "People in the vaccination centres will confirm that at that moment, all kinds of reservations were suddenly cancelled."
In Belgium, the effect of the CST on the vaccination campaign was not so clear (compared to France, for example), because the vaccination campaign was already well underway without the CST. "And we also introduced the CST very hesitantly. But it is particularly striking that the end of the CST coincided with the end of the vaccination campaign."
While there are no figures for how many cancelled their appointments for their booster dose or decided not to respond to their invite, the Brussels-Capital Region also saw its vaccination uptake take a nosedive as soon as the country moved into 'code yellow.'
'Not good enough'
"In all honesty, we have administered too few booster shots. We are far too complacent about it. 61% of the entire population is boostered, which is about 75% of adults," Vandenbroucke said. "The inconvenient truth is that that is objectively too little. It is one of the reasons why I would not throw out the CST just yet. We are far too complacent about the results of the booster campaign. They are not good enough, sorry."
He also added that the relatively low booster coverage could make it difficult to reimplement the CST again if a new Covid wave strikes after the summer, for example.
"It remains a difficult course, partly because we are not yet entirely sure what vaccination scenario we should follow in the coming year," Vandenbroucke said. "There might be a second booster for, among others, healthcare personnel and the elderly, but there are doubts about a new shot for the entire population."
The next Consultative Committee meeting is scheduled to take place on Friday 22 April.
