Correspondent in Brussels
The confinement of Belgium had been in the air since Monday. It was confirmed Tuesday evening by the Belgian Prime Minister, Sophie Wilmès, after a meeting with a group of experts charged with evaluating the evolution of the spread of the coronavirus in the country and making recommendations to the Belgian government. "The first rule is to stay at home in order to avoid maximum contact outside the immediate family," she said during a press conference.
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Concretely, confinement will begin this Wednesday at noon and will end on Sunday, April 5 in the evening. However, people will be allowed to leave their homes to go to work, the pharmacy, the supermarket or in an emergency. Family walks and individual sports activities are also allowed. Gatherings are, however, "prohibited".
In supermarkets, one person per 10m2 will be authorized and each customer cannot stay more than 30 minutes on site.Regarding businesses, teleworking should be favored, unless it is not possible. In this case, social distancing must be applied. Otherwise, the company will initially be exposed to a “heavy fine” and a risk of closure in the second phase. Shops - apart from pharmacies, food stores, petrol stations, banks, bookstores and animal feed stores - will have to close. In supermarkets, one person per 10m2 will be authorized and each customer cannot stay more than 30 minutes on site. No market is allowed. On the other hand, Belgians can continue to go to the hairdresser. However, they will be received in the salons by appointment and these salons can only accommodate one client at a time.
Belgium has been living in slow motion since the closing of bars, restaurants, cinemas and concert halls last Friday at midnight. If non-essential businesses were allowed to stay open - only on weekdays -, announcements of closings had multiplied in recent hours due, in particular, to the obligation of many employees to stay at home to keep their children. The Ikea group thus announced Tuesday afternoon the closure of all its stores in Belgium. Faced with an influx of customers who came to buy do-it-yourself equipment while confinement was looming, the Brico brand seemed to have great difficulty in keeping its outlets open. Stib, the Brussels public transport company, also indicated that it was forced to reduce the frequency of metros, trams and buses in the Belgian capital by a third.
Events have accelerated since the weekend in this country which has been operating a government of current affairs since the end of 2018. Faced with the spread of the coronavirus, the various Belgian parties - except for the Flemish of the N-VA - have agreed in recent days to make the Wilmès team a full-service government. Its field of intervention is however limited to the management of the coronavirus crisis at the health, economic and social level. Sophie Wilmès was sworn in before King Philippe on Tuesday afternoon. Belgium, which has 11.4 million inhabitants, reported on Tuesday 1243 cases of coronavirus and 10 deaths.