Belgian Govt Extends Precautionary Measures until March 1

The Belgian government decided to extend the current strict measures to limit the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) until March 1, 2021, which was announced today, Thursday, in a new ministerial decree.

The measures came into effect on November 2 and were intended to be in place until January 15,  but after today's decisions, all measures announced since November 2 are still in effect.

The advisory committee, which will convene on January 22, can announce either the easing of restrictions or tightening them before the date of March 1.

A spokeswoman for the Interior Minister, Annelies Verlinden, explains that the measures should have been extended, but this does not mean that there is no possibility of mitigation before the first of March.

And she added that the preventive measures will continue in effect so as not to cause confusion among the population, as they were initially scheduled to take place in mid-January.

The Belgian Official Gazette also indicates that schools in the country can be restarted, as decided by the advisory committee on Friday.

The Wallonia, one of the main provinces in Belgium, the government also ruled last Tuesday, January 12, to extend the curfew from 10 pm to 6 am, which was in effect until January 15, and was extended until February 15.

However, a report issued by the Sciensano Institute of Public Health of Belgium announced that since the beginning of the Corona pandemic, 2,008 people had died in the country.

According to the same report, the average number of infections in Belgium reached 1776.7 per day between December 31 and January 6, an increase of 11% from the previous week, and on average CCOVID-19 killed at least 58.4 people per day between December 31 and January 6, a decrease of 15.1%.

Since the start of the pandemic, the virus has infected at least 662,694 people in Belgium.