Cafés and restaurants will keep doors closed this Monday in Belgium, a restriction for at least a month deemed dramatic by this sector of activity, and which the government has justified by the surge in coronavirus contamination figures.
“We don't feel considered, and it hurts my heart […] I can't take it anymore,” said Angelo Bussi, a Brussels restaurateur met on Sunday evening when he was welcoming his last customers. .
“Officials, cooks, divers, everyone is suffering,” he added, while the sector has already had to undergo nearly three months of confinement between mid-March and early June.
Take-out authorized
This Monday morning, retailers practicing take-out sales were able to open, especially in the European district of Brussels, but they are the exception.
From the announcement Friday of the closures, which are coupled with a curfew between midnight and 5 am (as of Monday evening), officials in the sector had cried "disaster".
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced on Friday evening the closure of cafes and restaurants for a month, highlighting the “exponential” growth of the pandemic in this country of 11.5 million inhabitants.
An evaluation of the measure will be made after two weeks.
" The situation is serious "
"The situation is serious and much worse than on March 18 when we decided on almost complete confinement," said Alexander De Croo on Sunday evening in reference to the number of patients hospitalized in intensive care (412 in the country).
This "will continue to deteriorate and we must now do everything so that we can treat all the people who come to our hospitals", he added on the RTL-TVI channel, "all together we must limit as much as possible unnecessary contacts ”.
As a consequence of the sharp rebound in infections since September, especially among young people and students, the rate of hospitalizations and deaths (especially affecting the elderly and frail) has clearly accelerated in recent days.
More than 220,000 cases
Belgium recorded Monday 222,253 cases of coronavirus (a figure which has more than doubled in one month) and 10,413 deaths, making it one of the European countries most bereaved by the pandemic reported to its population.
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In the country, higher education has decided to limit the presence of students on campus to a maximum of 20% as of Monday.
Two weeks before the All Saints holidays (which begins there on Saturday 31), the schools remain open but these one-week holidays have already been extended by two days, until November 11 inclusive, in the French-speaking part of the country.
