The province of Antwerp is the region of the country most affected by the coronavirus in recent weeks.
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The crisis unit for the province of Antwerp decided on Saturday to limit contact to a maximum of ten people per individual over the next four weeks. Everyone will be “asked” to keep the name, address and telephone number of these individuals in writing.
As is already the case in the city of Antwerp since Saturday, meetings of more than ten people in public space are prohibited throughout the territory of the province. The crisis unit also requests that sufficient physical distance be maintained within this group. Private parties should also be postponed.
People over the age of 12 will be required to wear a mask in all “busy public places”.
“It is only if everyone systematically adheres to all the measures that we can, together, greatly reduce the number of contaminations in the next four weeks”, indicates the crisis unit headed by Governor Cathy Berx. “We ask everyone to be creative to beat the virus, not to circumvent measures.”
Strictly observing the rules, which are more severe at the local level, will make it possible to avoid re-containment, the authorities justify. “We want to avoid this scenario, everyone wants to avoid it at all costs,” they insist.
The province’s crisis unit met again on Saturday. The number of new infections is increasing there more rapidly than in the rest of the country. “The virus’s reproduction rate, or R0, is approaching 2, indicating an exponential increase in the number of infections,” the report concluded. This figure means that an infected person infects two others on average. In comparison, the rate stands at 1.45 for Belgium, according to data from Sciensano.
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