The Red Cross will set up tents outside hospitals in Liège and Brussels to support staff in screening patients suspected of having contracted the new coronavirus.
The move by the humanitarian group to pitch up the medical tents follows a request from Liège's medical health group and concerns six hospital sites in the Walloon city.
In Brussels, the Red Cross will also set up a similar operation to support Saint-Pierre Hospital, one of the two government-designated treatment centres for the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.
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"The [Red Cross'] role will be to carry out initial screenings to identify suspected Covid-19 patients and provide them with a mask and disinfecting their hands and to get them into the hospital via a specially designated circuit," the Red Cross said in a statement to Belga news agency.
The hospitals will provide the necessary material and training to the members of the organisation, which will also make available a number of ambulances for patients who test positive.
"For ambulance staff, the Red Cross will follow the indications of the federal public health service and respect the sanitary guidelines regarding potentially contagious patients," the NGO said.
The collaboration between the Red Cross and the hospitals comes as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Belgium reached 239 on Monday, up from 200 cases reported at the weekend.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
