BRUSSELS: Belgium was expected on Friday to allow hairdressers to reopen mid-month in a slight easing of COVID-19 restrictions as serious infections slow in a country with one of the world’s highest per capita death rates.
The Belgian government, regional chiefs and health experts were discussing easing restrictions to allow hairdressers, beauty parlours and possibly zoos and camping or cabin sites to reopen on Feb. 13 at the earliest.
However, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the reopening of hairdressers, if confirmed at the meeting, should not be understood as the start of wide-scale easing.
“The epidemiological situation simply does not allow that,” he told parliament on Thursday.
Belgium has recorded more than COVID-19 21,000 fatalities among its 11 million people, more than most other countries.
However, while cases have been inching up with more children tested, daily hospital admissions and fatalities have been heading down. The health agency said Belgium had been in a clear plateau since November, unlike many other countries.
Health agency officials told a news conference on Friday that the more infectious British variant now accounted for some 16% of positive cases, a lower share than initially feared.
Bars and restaurants have been closed since October and there is a nighttime curfew from 10 p.m., but shops and schools are able to operate, in contrast to neighbouring Germany and the Netherlands, where non-food shops and schools are closed.
The Belgian government says it needs to have fewer than 800 confirmed infections a day and 75 daily hospital admissions for a period of three weeks before substantially easing lockdown rules. Those figures are now respectively 2,349 and 121.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
Comments
0 comment