For the first time in a long time, all indicators are falling. In addition to the number of new infections and hospital admissions, the mortality rates are now also lower than the week before. Nevertheless, it remains important to follow the rules, Van Gucht said during the press conference of the National Crisis Center.
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Belgium is now in fourteenth place in Europe in terms of new infections, but the number of patients in hospitals is still very high. “Higher than in other countries,” said Van Gucht.
There is a slowdown in the decline, but there is no explanation yet why the numbers are declining at a slower pace. ‘That is not the result of the reopening of the schools, because it is too early to see those effects,’ said Van Gucht. “It is also not linked to the new test strategy, because it will not start until next week.”
New test strategy
From Monday, November 23, the test strategy will be adjusted, then people can be tested again without symptoms. On October 21, it was decided that only people with symptoms could be tested because the maximum capacity of the laboratories and the sample collection had been reached. Now the testing capacity has been increased and the number of new infections has been reduced. This allows the test strategy to be expanded again.
‘People who have had a high-risk contact with an infected person, but have no symptoms themselves, can be retested. People returning from a red zone abroad are also eligible, ‘said Van Gucht. Through the ‘passenger locator form‘, the form that travelers must complete when they return from abroad, determines who must be tested.
People who need to be tested will receive a text message with a personal code to book a test and to make an appointment at a test center. That appointment can be booked on mijngezondheid.be. On this website you can also download a quarantine certificate with the personal code and consult the result of the test.
The test should be taken on the seventh day after the high-risk contact, or the seventh day after returning from a red zone. “If the test is done earlier, you could still become contagious in the coming days,” said Van Gucht.
A test does not replace the quarantine, but it can shorten that period. A normal quarantine lasts ten days, in the four days after that extra caution is required. If the result of the test is negative, quarantine may be stopped early. If the test was positive, the patient must remain in isolation for an additional seven days. Van Gucht previously explained the difference between isolation and quarantine.
The new testing strategy should ease the pressure on GPs. This allows them to focus on patients with symptoms. “Quarantine is crucial to get rid of the virus,” Van Gucht concluded. ‘On average, someone infects one or two other people, even before the patient realizes that they are ill. Only quarantine can reduce that number to zero. That way we can solve the lockdown faster. ‘
View the figures about the corona virus here.
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