Flanders will also remain orange on the European corona map this week, Wallonia will turn red despite the lower number of cases.
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At least until next Thursday, Flanders will remain orange on the European map drawn up by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). That weekly map shows how hard the virus is circulating in a particular region.
Flanders and Wallonia have been coloring orange for a long time, Brussels red. It was expected that both Flanders and Wallonia would also turn red this week, as both regions flirted with the threshold values.
But that does not happen for Flanders. With 198 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past fourteen days, Flanders remains just below the threshold of 200. This is evident from figures from Sciensano that were published today, and are used as the basis for Thursday’s ECDC map.
– Infographic: De Standaard, methodology: Brecht Devleesschauwer (Sciensano), source: Sciensano
Too many positive tests in Wallonia
Wallonia also remains below that threshold with 173 cases, but there is also a second threshold: the percentage of tests with a positive result. Wallonia had a positivity ratio of 4.8 percent last week. That is above the threshold of 4 percent and that is why the region will turn red from Thursday.
In the last fourteen days, there were 14 percent fewer tests in Wallonia in the two weeks before. The number of infections rose by 41 percent during that period.
In Flanders, too, there was noticeably less testing, with a decrease of 16 percent. But there, the number of confirmed cases rose by only 4 percent compared to two weeks earlier. With a positivity ratio of 3.5 percent, Flanders therefore remains below the threshold value.
Fewer tourists
The color on the European map does not have many concrete consequences for Belgian tourists. Belgium uses the color code to determine who should be tested upon return. Anyone who travels to a red zone and is not vaccinated must have a test taken.
Foreign tourists may be deterred from traveling to Belgium. That is not good news for the tourism sector, but it can ensure that fewer infected people enter our country.
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