Pierre Van Damme: “If we let go of the measures now, there will be a new peak, because nobody has any protection against the virus”

The National Crisis Center came on Monday morning with encouraging figures. “It is evolving in the right direction,” says Pierre Van Damme of the University of Antwerp.

According to some, we can conclude from the figures that we are on the downward part of the curve. “We are of course very careful with every interpretation. It is Monday again, so we know that there is some delay, but it is certainly evolving in the right direction, ”says Van Damme in ‘Het Journaal’.

Do these numbers mean that we have passed the peak? “Well, we are still dealing with those two epidemics,” says Van Damme. “One in society, of which we can say that the curve has flattened. If we look purely at these mortality rates, we see that it is decreasing nicely. “

“And then we have that epidemic in residential care centers and a number of closed institutions where things have changed with a different dynamic. We had quite a few deaths there last week. And that will now also have to evolve in the right direction. We are going to have to monitor that closely. “

Experts can now also perfectly investigate what would happen if we suddenly had to let go of all measures. “Then you will actually have that upward peak, because a very large part of the population is still susceptible. So no one has any protection against the infectious disease. “

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