Insiders say the cabinet at tonight’s press conference no curfew is going to set. The resistance against it would be too great, including the mayors and the police would not want to.
A curfew has been in force in Belgium since 19 October. In Brussels and Wallonia, it starts at 10 p.m. and lasts until 6 a.m. In Flanders they call it a night clock, because it only starts at midnight and ends at 5 a.m.
Since its introduction, the number of infections has fallen sharply, but the question is to what extent the curfew has contributed to this, says correspondent Thomas Spekschoor. “The figures are difficult to interpret.”
In Belgium, schools and shops also closed and then reopened. Important was the control of travelers entering the country and the reduction of visits at home to one ‘hug contact’. “Not per day, but for the entire period”, says Spekschoor.
Less time on the road, shorter parties
Scientists in Belgium were also in favor of the introduction of a curfew. “Science shows that the curfew works,” Dirk Devroey, professor of family medicine at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels, said shortly before Christmas. VRT News. “It would also affect those people who would not take the corona rules very closely.”
The well-known Flemish virologist Marc van Ranst agreed with Devroey. If the curfew would also start at 10 p.m. in Flanders, people there too would spend two hours a day less on the road and parties would take less time, he said.
Figures are increasing again
In recent days, contamination figures have been rising again in Belgium. “The situation remains fragile and a flare-up is certainly possible in the coming weeks,” said virologist Steven de Gucht today. VRT News. “We see increases in all provinces, ranging from 2 percent in Luxembourg to 94 percent in Brussels.”
In Brussels this is almost doubling on a weekly basis. Here, the number of infections mainly increased in the age group 20 to 40 years, especially in the boroughs of Etterbeek and Ixelles, “municipalities where a very international population lives and many returning travelers live”.
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