Lockdown measures will get even tighter in Belgium as the government takes necessary action to curb the rising number of Sars-CoV-2 infections and hospitalisations in the country. 

The announcement came from Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, following a meeting this morning with the consultative committee handling the health crisis in the country. 

Based on the recent decision, new measures will take effect starting 10pm this Friday, the 26th of March:

1. All schools will be closed from next Monday, from preschool to secondary level. If the situation improves, the government hopes to reopen schools by April 19.
2. Youth camps and other extracurricular activities are still allowed but only during Easter holidays. Participation will be limited to small groups of up to 10 young people. Overnight activities are not allowed.
3. Non-essential stores will remain open, but customers will have to make an appointment before going there. 
4. Contact professions, such as beauty parlors, nail salons, massage centres, will have to close again. 
5. Social bubbles will have to be reduced from ten to four people. 
6. Non-essential travel is still prohibited. Border controls will be tightened for the Easter holidays. 
7. Curfew remains the same. (10pm to 6am for Brussels and Flanders, 12 midnight to 5am in Wallonia.) 
8. Working from home remains compulsory. Monitoring will be intensified, and penalties will be more severe. 

Latest coronavirus situation in Belgium

According to the Sciensano Public Health Institute, hospital confinements reached an average of 215.3 per day from March 17 to 23, indicating an increase of 28 percent from the last situation report. More than 600 of the 2,402 people currently confined are in the intensive care unit.

From March 14 to 20, Sciensano also recorded an average of 4,158 new coronavirus infections per day or 40 percent more than the previous report. Within the same period, an average of 25.3 people died per day, which is 3.5% higher than before.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Belgium has counted 842,775 infections and 22,763 deaths. On average, 58,300 tests are carried out every day, yielding a positivity rate of 7.6%. At present, the virus reproduces at a rate of 1.17. A reproduction rate greater than one indicates that contagion has a tendency to accelerate. 

Vaccinations

As of today, more than one million people in Belgium have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. They account for less than 10 percent of the country’s 11.5 million inhabitants. About four percent of the population is now fully vaccinated. 

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“In Italy people are dying at the rate of 300 a day. And so I can certainly understand the high level of anxiety that would exist in Italy and in many countries across Europe.”

That was the response of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison after Italy took actions to prevent the delivery of 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia in a move authorised by the European Commission.

Based on the report first published by the Financial Times, the Italian government defended its actions by citing the huge shortfall in AstraZeneca’s vaccine commitments to Italy and the European Union, and pointing out that Australia was a “non-vulnerable” country.

While Australian officials have chosen to stay level-headed after the incident, they are now calling on the European Commission to review its decision.

In January, the EU implemented an export control system for Covid-19 vaccines for the purpose of ensuring that pharmaceutical companies will honor their contracts with the EU.

The measure was drafted after AstraZeneca failed to supply the amount of vaccine doses promised to the EU early this year.

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“We have to overcome this pandemic together with one overarching objective: to leave no one behind,” the Belgian premier said during the launch of Recovery Plan for the World, a campaign to end Covid-19 and kickstart a global recovery.

Belgium is one of 23 governments that have pledged their commitment to the new global recovery plan initiated by Global Citizen together with the World Health Organization and the European Commission.

In support of the campaign, the Belgian prime minister guaranteed additional assistance for the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative. “If we want to recover better together, we need to assure everybody is safe.”

The Recovery Plan for the World is a year-long campaign with five goals: 1) to end Covid-19 for all; 2) end the hunger crisis; 3) resume learning everywhere; 4) protect the planet; and 5) advance equity for all.

“Vaccines must reach all corners of the planet, as soon as possible. In fact, Europe is the continent that exports the most vaccines to the rest of the world. We try to walk the talk. But everybody needs to chip in,” European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said in her message.

At present, 116 countries and territories affected by the pandemic still have no access to vaccines.

“For whatever the challenges, we must never forget that the pandemic can only be beaten for good if vaccines, tests, and medicines are affordable and accessible and available to everyone in the world,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The grand launch of the Recovery Plan for the World yesterday featured various leaders and personalities including WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, Global Citizen Ambassador Hugh Jackman, and singer/songwriter Billie Eilish.

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More than a month since coronavirus vaccines made their debut, only 1.24 percent of the world’s affected population has been vaccinated.

Out of 223 countries and territories with reported cases of Covid-19, no less than 145 are still waiting for the vaccine to arrive.

Once again, countries from the hard-up regions of the world are the last in line as wealthy and developed nations race against each other to secure more vaccines.

Israel, UAE, UK still leading the vaccination race

Nearly 40 percent of Israel’s 8.7 million population has received at least one shot.

In the United Arab Emirates, close to 37 percent of the population has been vaccinated.

The United Kingdom takes the lead in Europe with a vaccination rate of 17 doses per 100 persons.

Within the European Union, 15.78 million doses have entered the bloodstream of at least 2.58 percent of the bloc’s 447.7 million occupants.

In Belgium, 326,405 vaccinations have been carried out. This covers 2.84 percent of the country’s 11.62 million population.

Regions with little or no access to vaccines

Only 390,160 vaccines have been administered in the whole African continent, which has a population of 1.36 billion.

Asia records a total distribution of 49.7 million vaccines, but the vaccination rate is as low as one dose per 100 persons in a population of 4.6 billion.

South America has 432.9 million inhabitants, but less than one percent of the population has been vaccinated.

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Belgium’s vaccination task force plans to step up the campaign to vaccinate the country’s population by next week.

According to Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, ministers from Belgium’s three regions will meet on Wednesday and Thursday to come up with a strategy to accelerate vaccinations, which officially began yesterday.

The task force is expected to present the results of the meeting to the House Committee on Health this Friday.

Belgium’s vaccination program

About 700 residents of seven nursing homes across the country received the vaccine during the symbolic start of the vaccination drive on December 28.

Phase 1A of the campaign was formally launched on January 5. The goal is to vaccinate residents and staff members of nursing homes by the end of February, and hospital workers by the end of March.

For this week alone, the vaccine will be administered in 169 nursing homes: 73 in the French-speaking region of Wallonia, 54 in the Brussels-Capital Region, and 42 in the Flemish region of Flanders.

In phase 1B scheduled for April until June, priority will be given to people over 65 years old and those with high-risk medical conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes.

If all goes according to plan, other members of the population can start receiving the vaccine sometime in July. But it all depends on the supply.

At the moment, Belgium is using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

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Researchers from Sciensano detected the presence of antibodies in 26 percent of blood donors from Brussels, 18 percent of donors from Wallonia, and 10 percent in Flanders.

Overall, 14.4 percent of blood donors in Belgium have developed a resistance to the deadly virus.

Sciensano made the discovery after analysing over 16,000 blood samples provided by the Red Cross.

According to the Red Cross, the antibodies lower the risk of infection but do not guarantee complete immunity from the disease.

Meanwhile, the average number of new coronavirus cases per day is still declining in Belgium. From December 20 to 26, it stood at 1,801.4 or 29 percent lower than the previous period.

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Here is the latest number of cases and incidence rates in the 19 communes of Brussels. The figures reflect the situation in the last 14 days.

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At 11 a.m., vaccinations will take place at Sint-Pieters care facility in the Flemish town of Puurs-Sint-Amands, at Notre Dame de Stockel center in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre in Brussels, and at La Bonne Maison de Bouzanton in the Walloon town of Mons. The service is free of charge but not mandatory.

The vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech requires two shots to take full effect. The second dose will be injected 21 days after the first. Belgium plans to secure about 33 million vaccines worth €279 million.

Made in Belgium

The Covid-19 vaccine currently in use was produced right here in Belgium. Pfizer developed the product from a laboratory located in the remote town of Puurs in Antwerp.

The start of vaccinations in Belgium comes one day after the European Union launched its mass vaccination program.

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On Sunday, vaccinations were carried out in Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Austria, Croatia, and Greece.

Other EU countries including Portugal, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Lithuania began vaccinating their populations on Saturday.

In Belgium and Luxembourg, vaccinations will start tomorrow, December 28.

Non-EU countries including the UK, Switzerland, and Serbia have already launched their vaccination campaigns.

The EU has so far secured over two billion doses of vaccines for its 450 million citizens and residents.

Priority access to vaccines will go to healthcare workers, people over 60 years of age, those whose state of health makes them particularly at risk, and essential workers outside the health sector.

Other priority groups include workers who cannot socially distance, vulnerable socio-economic groups, and other groups at higher risk.

Meanwhile, a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus continues manifesting in Europe and around the world.

First identified in the UK, the new variant has appeared in other European countries including the Netherlands, France, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

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