Talk to me about Belgium

[Rossita]

I can’t remember who it was but at the press conference the other day someone mentioned Belgium. They have seen a sharp rise in cases but have managed to curb it by increasing restrictions and without going back into into a full lockdown.

Does anyone know what Belgium did to turn things around again? I’m trying to understand what direction we might go in and also I find it quite reassuring to see how it’s possible to contain the virus without going into full scale lockdown.

Following this thread as I'm interested. I thought I read somewhere that pubs and restaurants had a 10pm curfew there and that was something Boris is considering for England?

following

They introduced a rule of 5 similar to our rule of 6. That was their main measure.

Although their cases are rising a little again.

And they were EXTREMELY strict about masks, with massive on the spot fines enforced by police.

Current measures: www.antwerpen.be/nl/overzicht/samen-tegen-corona/veelgestelde-vragen-over-corona/translation-of-frequently-asked-questions-concerning-the-corona-measures-in-antwerp

The rules don't seem to be too different?
There is a 5 person bubble, which is not allowed to change for now.
Shopping is only allowed with max two people.
Restaurants and pubs are open till 1 o'clock.
Masks in secondary schools.

There have been stricter local measures. Antwerp has had an evening clock where you where not allowed outside between 23.30 and 6.00. (Unless necessary for work or emergencies of course). It also made the bubble smaller before the federal government did.

Thanks for the link. It’s good to see that there’s is a balance between full lockdown and no restrictions that can stop numbers from spiralling out of control. It’s probably going to have to be the approach that most countries take long term.

It was one of Whittys graphs at the beginning of the briefing earlier in the week.

I don't think Belgium have turned things around, have they? They had nearly 1000 cases yesterday, I've never seen it so high. And still by far the worst death rate in Europe. I don't know but I'd assumed something was going very wrong there.

In the 'second wave' that is. I'm sure it was higher at the peak.

@manicinsomniac they went from an average of about 80 to 600 over about three weeks.

They’ve stayed stable at an average of 600 cases per day for the last month. Some days it fluctuates but there’s been no sustained increase since 10th August.

Interesting that they did the rule of 6 (or 5) first. Gives me a bit more hope that our government aren’t just pulling ideas out of the ether.

@Lemons1571

It was one of Whittys graphs at the beginning of the briefing earlier in the week.

Thanks Lemons.

I know they haven’t completely turned things around but after seeing cases start to rise again they have managed to flatten their curve (hate that term) Their approach seems very sensible.

No problem, Rossita. I have Belgian friends, so I try to keep up a bit with the rules and numbers there.

For Manicinsomniac:
The death rate due to covid is indeed terrible in Belgium. However, that is due to how they count. Belgium decided to count all probable covid deaths as covid deaths. Most other countries didn't. This means they have a lot more covid deaths per inhabitant, which makes their covid death rate very high. But their unexplained excess death rate is much, much lower. If you take the covid deaths and the unexplained excess deaths, Belgium has about a third less deaths per inhabitant than Britain.