“Masks have a role to play in preventing transmission”, underlines Emmanuel André

“It is risky to make a rule of three in this type of situation,” said virologist Emmanuel André on Saturday, referring to tables and graphs comparing the health situation in Belgium with that of other countries.

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“The epidemic situation can be very different from one country to another, simply because the virus entered the countries at different times. The start of the epidemic may therefore have been delayed. The latter may also have been accelerated. In Belgium in particular, more than 150 new outbreaks started at the same time after the Carnival holidays and therefore the start of the epidemic was particularly rapid. This is the peculiarity of our country, “immediately said the expert.

The number of reported deaths is also linked to the ability of hospitals and nursing homes to perform the tests, he said. “An underreporting effect can also exist. We are not in this context in Belgium because the tests are widely available, and especially for hospitals. “

Finally, the virologist insists on the fact that the Belgian authorities want “to report all the deaths and this in all transparency”.

“It is risky to make rules of three in this type of situation but we understand the need for some people to want to ask the question of confidence in relation to our ability to react. We think that the best way to compare is to take the number of deaths in hospitals, which is 1,840 in Belgium “, he concluded during the daily press briefing of the health authorities on the state of the pandemic in Belgium .

Masks have a “role to play in preventing transmission”

“We believe, like other doctors, that anything that will prevent infection is good to take. And, masks have a role to play in preventing transmission, which is all the more important since physical distance is more difficult to apply. The role of the mask has been present in the general response since the start of this epidemic to prevent infections. It was mainly supported at the level of healthcare institutions where the level of exposure is very high. In general, the mask is one element among others but cannot be the only one to help protect the population and certainly in a logic of progressive deconfinement but we are not yet at this stage “, underlines the expert.

He also adds that a reflection is underway on how to “transform this evidence that the mask protects from infection into recommendations that are applicable and useful in the long term in our society”.

The Academy pointed out, however, that if the artisanal face cover allows filtration of 70% of the viral particles (against 89% for surgical masks, 92% for FFP2 and for 98% FFP3, Editor’s note), the effectiveness of these masks will be lessened if not coupled with frequent hand washing and social distancing measures.

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