© BELGA
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Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) is an outspoken supporter of the vaccination of children, as soon as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives permission for this. “I hope we can vaccinate children aged six to 11 from January. We are waiting for the green light from Europe. If it is possible, I think we should do it,” said Vandenbroucke in the current affairs program ‘Jeudi en prime’ on the French-language broadcaster RTBF.
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Source: BELGIAN
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The minister is also in favor of a mouth mask in the fourth, fifth and sixth grade of primary education. Due to the high virus circulation, we have to re-establish a culture of mouth masks, including at school, he said. “We expected this fourth wave, but not that it would be as strong. We underestimated the contagiousness of the virus,” said Vandenbroucke. “Without the vaccine, it would have been an unprecedented disaster.”
The vaccine protects against serious illness, but does not slow down the circulation of the virus, he lamented. According to him, this leads to the increasing hospital admissions that we are now seeing, with 472 patients in intensive care. “We will exceed the critical threshold of 500 people in intensive care.”
The fact that there are also vaccinated patients in intensive care is due to the high circulation of the virus. As a result, elderly people with weakened immune systems are still affected, said Minister Vandenbroucke.
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