Belgium is facing a potential "triple epidemic" this winter, as a surge in Covid-19 cases coupled with an increase in regular seasonal cold and flu infections threaten to stretch the country's health service beyond sustainable limits.
"The risk of a triple epidemic exerting a strong pressure on our healthcare system is a reality that must be taken into account," Steven Van Gucht, the Head of the Department of Viral Diseases at the Sciensano Institute of Public Health, told La Dernière Heure (DH).
Van Gucht's comments were echoed by Antoine Flahault, the director of the Geneva-based Institute of Global Health. "The probability of seeing the conjunction of different winter epidemics occur at the same time is high, causing risks of temporary saturation of the health system and in particular hospitals," he said.
Flahault added that the crisis this winter could well resemble the situation last year, when many struggling Belgian hospitals encouraged patients to stay away from emergency rooms if they exhibited flu-like symptoms.
'Europe has lowered its guard'
Experts recommended that certain precautionary measures adopted during the pandemic, including wearing masks, should be temporarily re-introduced in order to limit infections and relieve pressure on Belgium's health system.
"It will be necessary to reconsider wearing masks in [hospital] waiting rooms while also having strict respiratory hygiene," Van Gucht said.
Flahault also warned of the dangers of "Covid fatigue" setting in amongst Europe's population, with many citizens currently unwilling to wear masks and take Covid tests.
"The world wanted to quickly turn the page on this pandemic which has strongly mobilised energies and public policies for almost three years," he noted. "Europe has indeed lowered its guard in terms of health surveillance; testing is taking place much less in some countries such as Belgium."
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In order to pre-empt a possible crisis this winter, Flahault recommended wearing FFP2 face masks "in close spaces" and encouraged at-risk individuals to get regularly tested and sign up for booster vaccinations this autumn.
Experts in America have also recently expressed concern at the appearance of a new Covid variant, BA.2.86, against which the newly updated vaccines are said to be "a fairly poor match".
Flahault similarly cautioned about the probability that this variant will cause a strong wave of global infections in the coming months. Experts stress however that there is currently no evidence that BA.2.86 causes more severe symptoms than other, more widespread Covid strains (e.g. EG.5 and FL.1.5.1).
