Professor Elisabeth De Waele had high hopes that after weeks of bad news, strict measures would finally come. “I really thought, let’s have one tonight to celebrate the lockdown. But now I’m not celebrating, ”she says. Because only a complete lockdown could save the hospitals – and certainly ‘her’ intensive care department at UZ Brussel – from total collapse.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open Vld) repeated last night that that was at stake: “The pressure on hospitals is enormous. They fight for every life every day. By mid-November, 2,800 people will be in intensive care. Last week, another 100,000 sick people were added. We must prevent our hospitals and healthcare personnel from collapsing. ”
No lockdown
But the announced measures will fall short, Professor De Waele fears. It is mainly what is not to come that worries her: no ban on non-essential movements, no perimeter within which people are allowed to move around their place of residence, no ban on going on vacation. “This is not a lockdown, is it,” says De Waele. “I really thought that the government would be very strict now. What we needed was a lockdown like in March: everything closed, everyone in their room. Because what you get now is that everyone will find loopholes again in a Belgian way. We should have closed everything on September 28, at the previous entanglement. Then we would have had another chance in the hospitals. Now I fear the worst: this is going to cost lives, both on the Covid side and on the non-Covid side. ”
Social contacts may be limited to one close contact per family member, but the government does not go far enough there either, according to De Waele. “Suppose you live with five in a house: then each family member can receive one friend every day. Not at the same time as another visitor, but do you think the virus takes that into account? That it cannot be transferred from that one close contact to your family member, and then infect the rest of the house and the visitors? That way, even if you stick to the rules, you continue to create and maintain sources of infection. ”
Done with paediatrics
Yet De Waele does not want to lose heart. “The measures have been created in such a way that people will hopefully go into lockdown themselves. We will see what the effects are in ten to twelve days. In the meantime, we have started building a seventh intensive care unit, which until now housed paediatrics. We are trying so hard to keep our heads above water. Hopefully people now really understand why they have to keep their contacts to an absolute minimum. ”
Marc Van Ranst satisfied: ‘Working from home will be the key to success’
“What more could the government have done?” For virologist Marc Van Ranst (KU Leuven), politics has made the right decisions. “Working from home will be the key to making this work.”
“This is clearly a lockdown. It has also been said in so many words. What more could the government have done, ”says Van Ranst. He means: there are no more veiled concepts to avoid having to say that everyone should stay in their room. “Social contacts had to be stopped. This is really an emergency brake. Six weeks is a long period, but very much needed. Because we know that the curve rises quickly, but goes down very slowly. Six weeks is really a minimum before we can start thinking about relaxation. And even then we will have to agree clearly in the meantime how far the curve must have fallen before the measures can be loosened. ”
No loneliness
Van Ranst thinks that we are still allowed to have one cuddly contact per family member. “They absolutely wanted to avoid people becoming lonely. That is why it is also good that single people are allowed to have two close contacts. The other measures are also in line with our proposals. There is no ban on non-essential movements or a perimeter around your place of residence, but at the same time there is the closing of shops – and the catering industry was already closed – to avoid movements as much as possible. If you live in a city and want to drive 30 km with the family to a forest for a walk, you can still do that.
But it is above all making homework compulsory that becomes the key: we must avoid people still sitting close together on the open transport. That is why extending the autumn holidays and compulsory part-time home education in secondary education is also an option. This period will help to get the infections under control there, both among students and teachers. And after that they will come into contact with each other less. ”
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