31 March 2021: Belgians are rushing off to the seaside to enjoy the glorious weather…

31 March 2021: During the week from 21 to 27 March an average of 4,810 people tested positive forSARCoV-2, a rise of 15% on the figures for the previous week. There are currently 2,818 patients with COVID-19 in Belgian hospitals. Of these more than 739 are in intensive care. Clearly, Belgium’s coronavirus figures are in the red and the pressure on the intensive care units is increasing rapidly. If the figures continue to increase at this rate, Belgium will see 1,000 coronavirus patients in intensive care by 10 April. Hospitals have been asked to scale up and to reserve 60% of beds in their intensive care units for Covid-19 patients and to postpone all elective procedures. Yesterday was not all gloom and doom, there was a glimpse of hope on the vaccination front: (1) Belgium’s vaccination campaign will enter a new phase in April, when people with an underlying condition between 18 and 65 years old will start receiving their jabs, and (2) Pfizer/BioNTech will be producing 2.5 billion coronavirus vaccines this year, 500 million more than the expected 2 billion. The latter alongside the news that Belgium will receive a share of 10 million coronavirus vaccines which Pfizer promised to deliver to the EU by this summer, comes at a pivotal moment in our country’s vaccination rollout. Promising news but for now we’re all urged to stick to the measures to curb the further spread of the virus. Driving compliance to keep everybody safe, however, is becoming a huge challenge. Despite the fact that rushing off to the seaside now the weather is glorious is not a good idea there were large crowds queuing at the railway stations yesterday morning - Blankenberge, Belgium.