“A second lockdown is not far off,” warns Margot Cloet, the top woman of Zorgnet-Icuro in ‘The seventh day’. “If the numbers continue to rise like this, healthcare will no longer make it at a certain point.” According to Erika Vlieghe, the country is on the way to red on the corona barometer that we are still waiting for. She calls the current curve scary.
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“The number of patients has doubled in a week in Brussels hospitals,” confirms Marc Noppen, CEO of UZ Brussel in ‘De seventh day’. According to Noppen, Brussels hospitals are on the verge of phase 1 B, with enormous pressure on staff and with major consequences for regular care. In phase 1B, the hospital will reserve 50% of the accredited beds in intensive care units and four times this number in accredited beds in ordinary wards for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. The number of hospitalizations continues to increase. In the past week, an average of 119 people were admitted to hospitals every day, an increase of 66.7 percent. There are currently 1,257 people in hospital, 226 of them in intensive care.
“Care will not make it”
According to Cloet, there is already a dropout of staff within her hospitals and residential care centers of Zorgnet Icuro. According to her, it will be necessary to recall retired nurses or to involve people from other sectors such as the event sector in, for example, supervision and logistics. “The first contacts have already been made.” In any case, Cloet wants a number of more intertwined society if the trend continues. “It is the only way to stop the virus or to let it stagnate. She is looking at education and measures for places where many people gather. “Otherwise, I definitely fear a second lockdown. That lockdown is not far off. If the numbers continue to rise like this, healthcare will certainly no longer make it at some point.
Alternatives to lockdown
Infectiologist Erika Vlieghe referred to the situation as “dramatic”, “serious” and “terrifying”. The coronabarometer that is not there yet, according to the infectiologist, would still color orange but is already tending towards red. She did nuance. “In the meantime, everything has been prepared. Procedures and buffer systems that make everything go slower. At the beginning of March, we doubled every four days. Now there is still some more time on the hospitalizations. But it is still going fast. We must act now. Because it is going fast, especially in the last few days. ”
Vlieghe suggested to consider alternatives to a lockdown. “You can’t save both the goat and the cabbage all the time.”
Marc Van Ranst: “Belgium is gradually reaching the world top in terms of the number of new infections”
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