6 April 2020 Update From A Locked Down Ghent

Yesterday the national public health institute announced that 164 people have died from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing a total to 1,447. However, for the first time, the number of people who left hospital in a day was greater than the number of new coronavirus patient admissions. In the past 24 hours, 504 people were allowed to leave hospital and 499 were hospitalised, bringing the total of occupied hospital beds to 5,735 including 1,261 in intensive care. Ghent has been shut down for three weeks now. Places that were once teeming with the hustle and bustle of daily life have become ghost-towns with massive restrictions put on our lives. The socio-economic consequences of the coronavirus will not be small, and we will feel them long after the situation has normalised. There will be a time ‘before’ and ‘after’ corona, whether it is about the way we treat each other, or the way our society functions. Let’s hope we come out of this ordeal stronger. Stay Safe, Stay Healthy – Limburgstraat, Ghent, Belgium