Belgium must not become a restricted area, Prime Minister Wilmès assured – but announced drastic measures against the corona virus: schools and cafés are closed, public transport should be avoided.
In order to curb the spread of the corona virus, Belgium is bringing parts of public life to a standstill for the time being. All restaurants, cafés and museums will remain closed from now on. All leisure activities, cultural events and concerts must be canceled – and this applies not only to public events, but also to private ones.
As the Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès announced after a meeting of the National Security Council, schools should also stop teaching until the beginning of the Easter break on April 3. Parents who work and have to work in the healthcare sector, for example, could still send their children to schools for childcare. Grandparents should not be involved in childcare as they belong to the risk group for a coronavirus infection.
Hamster purchases “neither necessary nor in solidarity”
Pharmacies, grocery and animal feed stores remained open, said the head of government. Hamster purchases are therefore neither necessary nor show solidarity with fellow citizens.
Buses and trains continue to operate in Belgium, but Willmès asked citizens to only use public transport if there was no other option.
Services and Friday prayers canceled
In Belgium, the number of identified corona infections has recently increased very rapidly: According to the monitoring by the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, 314 cases have been confirmed so far, three people died from the consequences of the viral disease.
In the past few days, Belgian virologists and medical doctors have put pressure on the government to take decisive action against the spread of the virus. Then late Thursday evening Wilmès announced the drastic measures. To seal off the country completely like Italy, but is not necessary, she assured.
The country’s Catholic churches had previously announced that no services would be held until early April. The Great Mosque in Brussels also announced that Friday prayers would not take place “until further notice”.
Europacampus employees work from home
The institutions of the European Union in Brussels are also switching to crisis mode in view of the pandemic: From Monday onwards, the approximately 32,000 employees of the EU Commission will work from home – only those who perform essential functions should come to the office, it said.
At the beginning of the week, the European Parliament had asked all employees to stay at home if possible. For the first time in EU history, the monthly session in Strasbourg was canceled – to meet there would have been too great a risk for the 751 MPs and the people of Strasbourg, as Parliament President David Sassoli said.
He himself made the declaration from his private apartment after he went into quarantine as a precautionary measure after visiting Florence.
EU interior ministers discuss how to proceed
Despite the restrictions, the 27 EU interior ministers plan to meet in Brussels today. In addition to the migrants stranded on the Greek-Turkish border, they also want to talk about cooperation in the fight against the corona virus. Several EU countries have already imposed entry restrictions, and Germany has imposed an export ban on breathing masks and medical protective clothing. Italy, however, signaled that protective masks and other equipment are becoming scarce there.
With information from Helga Schmidt, ARD Studio Brussels.
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