12 May 2021: Politicians are half-deaf to the arguments of virologists and healthcare professionals…

 12 May 2021: With a Reproduction number of 0.90 the pandemic is shrinking in Belgium but the fall in the number of new recorded cases is increasing again. Between 2 May and 8 May, an average of 3,029 new coronavirus infections were detected per day, the figures is up by 2% compared to the previous week.
There are 711 patients being treated in intensive care for Covid-19 and a total of 2,255people hospitalised with a coronavirus infection. The positivity rate stand at 6.5%. On 9 May 38.8% of the adult population had received at least one shot of the vaccine. Clearly, during the past seven days the number of recorded cases has reached a plateau around 3,000 cases a day and it looks like we will stay around this figure in coming days. Hospitalisations among people in their 40s and 50s are on the increase.  This group represents 34% of hospitalisations. Despite these concerning data the government has agreed several target dates that each should allow further relaxations: 9 June, 1 July, 30 July, 13 August, and 1 September. Starting 9 June restaurants and bars will be permitted to serve customers indoors. Fairs, fitness centres, cinemas, theatres, etc. will all be allowed to reopen on this date.  Events indoors may welcome 200 participants, outdoors 400. Also starting 9 June households will be able to invite 4 people into their home. Starting 1 July people who are vaccinated will be able to travel abroad using the European green corona certificate. More people will gradually be permitted to attend big events too in July and August. A lot of promises whilst there are still a lot of unknowns. Meanwhile, we’re seeing the first tourists back in Ghent – Korenlei, Ghent, Belgium.