Brussels and Wallonia are hiring hundreds of operators for contact tracing, La Libre Belgique and La Dernière Heure report on Wednesday.
The tracing centres are faced with an increase in the number of cases. As a result, it takes too long to reach people who have had a high-risk contact.
Brussels is aiming to reach 260 operators by the end of October, La Libre Belgqiue and La Dernière heure said.
In Wallonia, "we have gone from 90 operators to 160 and then to 230. We are targeting 400 operators in the near future," said the cabinet of Christie Morreale (PS), Walloon Health Minister.
"Over the past ten days the tracing centre has gone from 700 daily calls to 5,400 for positive Covid-19 cases. In the case of people who have been in contact with positive cases, we have 24,000 calls per day."
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Brussels has had an average of 1,301.7 new cases over the last seven days, which represents a 37% increase compared to the week before. Wallonia has seen an average of 4,394.4 new cases, which is a 71% increase compared to the week before.
Belgium made international headlines when Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke warned of a "tsunami" of new infections in Brussels and Wallonia, a point at which “we no longer control what is happening.”
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
