Brussels region Prime Minister Rudi Vervoort said on Sunday that he would meet with the region’s mayors this week to discuss the measures taken to curb the spread of coronavirus, including the curfew.
However, he did not give the impression that restrictions would be relaxed right away.
“I shall call a meeting of the mayors on the measures in force in Brussels,” Mr. Vervoort said on the RTL TVI’s Sunday discussion programme, ‘C’est pas tous les jours dimanche.’ “The idea will be to accompany the calendar so that we can come out of it,” he said, referring to the measures adopted by the Consultative Committee for the next few weeks.
The Brussels-Capital Region has been under a night-time curfew lasting from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM since 23 October last. Facemasks, which need to cover the mouth and the nose, are compulsory. All businesses must close by 8:00 PM and public consumption of alcohol is banned.
The Consultative Committee, comprising the heads of the country’s various regions and communities as well as the federal government, has decided to relax COVID-related restrictions in three phases by early May, depending on the evolution of the pandemic.
According to the Joint Community Commission, the incidence of the virus – the number of infections for every 100,000 inhabitants – has gone up significantly in recent days in Brussels. On 26 February, it was 287. By Wednesday, it had climbed to 344.
The positivity rate – confirmed cases as a percentage of those tested – went from 7.5% on 26 February to 7.6% on Friday, while the number of tests administered increased slightly. Over 50% of infections are now due to the British variant of the virus, which is more contagious, but the other strains are also on the increase in Brussels.
For about 10 days now, daily hospital admissions have been mounting. They went up from 279 on 26 February to 318 on 4 March. Similarly, the number of patients in intensive care went from 61 to 68 within the same period.
The Brussels Times
