1 November 2020: We need to demonstrate a collective responsibility in combatting the pandemic, if not, we’re heading for a misty future

1 November 2020: Update on The Corona Pandemic – Belgium crossed the barrier of 20,000 daily coronavirus infections. At the moment, 6,438 people are hospitalized for covid-19 in Belgium, with 1,105 of them being in intensive care units. The number of infections and the number of hospital admissions are rising so quickly that Belgium announced last Friday that it will activate a lockdown as of Sunday night. Hence, yesterday was the last day of trading before the emergency break to curb the increase of infections becomes effective. I would have expected that people would stay at home and the shops would be empty, but nothing was less true, there were huge crowds in shopping streets and big queues outside retail outlets selling non-essential goods. In summary, crowded shopping streets shamed our country the day before the lockdown becomes effective.Obviously, it didn’t sink in that it is now or never and that this is our last chance to avoid a nationwide tragedy. Why are people ignoring the fact that we are heading for a crash of our healthcare system and that this irresponsible behavior may result that hospitals will soon have to choose who they treat and who they don’t? We need to demonstrate a collective responsibility in combatting the pandemic, if not, we’re heading for a misty future - Damme, Belgium