Video. ‘Far too early to abolish social distancing’
‘We roll out the carpet’
It is much too early for biostatistician Geert Molenberghs to abolish social distancing. “We were already concerned about the fairly large package of relaxation that is ahead of June 9, and if we now purchase a number of safety barriers such as distance and mouth masks, an environment will be created in which the virus will pass quite easily. We must not forget that we have known for a year that the family circle is the place where the virus easily passes and especially with the arrival of the variants, we often see that someone in a family can infect everyone, “warns Molenberghs.
“If we are going to expand the family with some very close and changing contacts, we will roll out the carpet for the virus. We know that the vaccination campaign is progressing rapidly and that our elderly population is very well vaccinated, but there is a very large group of adults between the ages of 18 and 65 who are not yet vaccinated or only incomplete, and there are now many in their twenties, thirties and forties in our hospitals, so this is too early if you ask me,” the biostatistician continues.
According to him, there is a high risk that we will see the consequences in the figures around 1 July. “We have seen in other countries such as Israel that there has been quite a wave after all. Today Israel has an incidence rate of 5, with us it is still 250. We simply still have a lot of circulation, the virus is still in all corners and sides of the country. It is safer not to take a far-reaching measure until the circulation in facts and figures is sufficiently low, which is not yet the case.”
‘Uncomfortable message’
Virologist Marc Van Ranst also believes that we should keep our distance from each other even longer. “Uncomfortable message: the Indian variant is going to advance, and this summer the numbers are going to go up again,” he said on Twitter. “Releasing this measure comes too soon.”
The new rules contained in a draft ministerial decree, the virologist on Radio 1 calls “almost the ultimate relaxation”. According to Van Ranst, this is only possible “when everyone has received their first injection”.
“We are still in the midst of the pandemic. People often forget that when they only hear about relaxation,” says Van Ranst. The vaccination campaign is still in full swing. “To say ‘everything is possible’ on June 9 is of course not good. They also say, ‘you don’t have to do that’. That’s a very important disclaimer. The fact that it is allowed does not mean that everyone should do it unbridled.”
‘Politics will have to explain’
Infectiologist Erika Vlieghe discussed the issue on Friday evening at a meeting of the GEMS advisory body, which she chairs. “Politics will have to explain it themselves,” she says in a response to The newspapaer. “In any case, we have not written this in our advice.”
Verlinden: “Time to return responsibility”
Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) thinks the experts’ reservations are justified. “The virus is not gone, so we have to be careful.” On the other hand, we have been asking people to be strict for a very long time. Now that the numbers are moving well, it’s time to hand back the responsibility and give the freedom to organize things. We take the recommendations of the experts to heart, but it is up to the politicians to ensure that we have people on board,” said Verlinden.
For the sake of completeness: it is still “highly recommended to comply with preventive measures such as keeping distance and wearing masks as much as possible”. Social distancing will, however, remain mandatory outside the home environment, such as in shops and at cultural events.
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