19 February 2021: Caution is in order…

19 February 2021: In the week to 15 February on average 1813 people tested positive each day in Belgium. The figure is down 12% on the week. In the same period 120 patients with Covid were hospitalised and 39 fatalities a day were linked to Covid. The figures are down respectively 2% and 8% on the week. Even though Belgium’s coronavirus infection and hospitalisation figures are continuing their downward trend, they are not good enough to start relaxing the measures that were put in place to curb the spread of the virus yet. 240 coronavirus infections per day per 100,000 inhabitants is still way too high. Compared to other European countries we’re ranking somewhere in the middle. We are doing better than France (400) and the Netherlands (290) but worse than Germany (140). Belgian virologists, therefore, reiterated that the thresholds of 800 infections and 75 hospitalisations per day should be reached first before any relaxation could be considered. One virologist said “If we begin to relax some coronavirus measures before Easter, we would be shooting ourselves in the foot. Going too fast is not an option”. Today, I’m posting the last pictures of last week’s cold snap – Zevergem, Belgium.