If the coronavirus figures and booster vaccine rates continue to evolve favourably in February, Wallonia will be able to scrap the use of the Covid Safe Ticket (CST) before the start of spring, said Walloon Health Minister Christie Morreale.
"If the situation continues to improve in the coming weeks, we will lift the extended use of the CST in Wallonia before the return of spring," Morreale told a regional parliament committee on Tuesday. "Not a day more, not a day less will be counted in the calendar to lift this health measure."
Yet Morreale stressed the need for national coherence and said that any decisions regarding the CST in Wallonia would be "closely linked" to the debate on compulsory vaccination underway in the Federal Parliament. "It seems important to me that there is an inter-federal position," she said.
Last Friday, the Consultative Committee announced that it would examine "the epidemiological added value" of the CST and its place within the barometer as soon as possible, taking into account the parliamentary debates. "These recommendations could be available within a week," Morreale added.
Growing support to end CST
Earlier on Tuesday, the leader of the Francophone socialist PS party, Paul Magnette, also said that Belgium should drop the CST at the start of March if the country can switch to 'code yellow' on the barometer.
“The picture is much improved,” he said. “There are fewer and fewer people hospitalised and health services are under less pressure. With a bit of luck, we can turn yellow around the start of March and with that we can do without the CST.”
Earlier this year, the authorities had already made it clear that there would be no need for the CST in code yellow – which experts and ministers are optimistic can be introduced at the next Committee meeting at the start of March.
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In figures, ‘code yellow’ goes into force once fewer than 65 new Covid-19 patients per day are admitted to hospitals, and fewer than 300 beds are occupied in the intensive care unit.
Additionally, Morreale pointed out that 77% of the Walloon population eligible to get a booster dose has already received it or will receive it in the coming days. "92% of those over 65, 89% of immunocompromised people and 81% of health professionals have received or will receive this booster dose very soon."
