22 April 2020 Update from A Locked Down Ghent

The daily update from the Belgian crisis centre shows that 170 people died of COVID-19 on Monday and that 172 people were hospitalised, bringing the total number of people in hospital to 4,976. All very encouraging news! The not so good news was that we learned from an article published in Nature Medicine that half of all infections are passed on by people before they come down with coronavirus symptoms. In addition, we do not expect to have a vaccine in the months to come and herd immunity in all European countries is poor. The lifting of the lockdown will need to be managed with great care. As part of this exit strategy a lot of store is put in targeted testing and contact tracing: people who have been in contact with somebody who comes down with corona are alerted to this fact by their GP.  Noodling on the pro’s and con’s of my smart phone registering all people that I come across on my corona walks I keep snapping away my beloved city as it unrolls before my eyes. Stay Safe, Stay Healthy – Muinkplein, Ghent, Belgium.