Shopping Sunday in Antwerp continues, Berx thinks it is ‘cynical’

In Antwerp, the shopping Sunday, traditionally on the first Sunday of the month, continues, despite terrible corona figures and a lockdown that starts on Monday. On Saturday, people went shopping in droves for the last time, much to the dismay of ministers and experts.

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“I don’t think this is a good idea,” says governor Cathy Berx to VRT. ‘I find it cynical and incomprehensible. Today is All Saints’ Day, the day on which we honor the dead. Then it is strange to organize a shopping Sunday in full pandemic. If you then go shopping with many people, you can be sure that this will lead to new infections. ‘

Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever (N-VA) has not canceled shopping Sunday. But in a video he warns to follow all the rules and indicates that there will be extra police in the historic center.

Yet Berx does not think that is enough: ‘It would be much better if people did not come to Antwerp. Such a shopping Sunday amounts to an event, and that is prohibited. I can only hope that it will rain very well and very hard. ‘

In Ghent, the traditional shopping Sunday had been postponed a while ago to the second weekend of November, but due to the lockdown, many stores announced that they would open exceptionally on 1 November.

Flemish Minister of Internal Administration Bart Somers (Open VLD) calls to stay at home. Federal Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) also agrees: “Do not stand in long queues and do not go to shopping streets in droves,” she warned on the regional channel ATV. ‘Otherwise we will see dramatic things in the hospitals in the coming days and weeks.’

The stricter measures to prevent the spread of the corona virus will not take effect until Sunday evening. All non-essential stores will be closed from Monday. But some shops are still open on Sundays. On Saturday it was very busy all over the country in shopping streets and at large retail warehouses.

Read here: From clothing store to tattoo parlor, it was packed everywhere: ‘They should have closed everything already. I’ve never known it so busy ‘

Intensivist Walter Verbrugghe (UZ Antwerp) tried to explain to people why we should stay at home now. ‘Shopping Sunday in Antwerp. How it started (with a photo of healthy lungs, ed.) and how it ended (in a photo of lungs affected by Covid-19, ed.).’

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