The Corona crisis in Belgium is one of the worst in continental Europe • Death rate per capita in the country is the highest in the world • Minister in government: "I admit, we made many mistakes"
Her body dies from Corona in a hospital in Belgium // Photo: Reuters
While Italy and Spain struggle to get back to their routine after the two-year infection rate declines and Germany talks about returning to school and places of entertainment, one of the countries at the height of the colonial crisis is Belgium, a country that does not often make headlines under normal circumstances.
With a population of 11 million, the number of dead in Belgium is 5,435 people, more than its largest neighbor Germany, where the population is eight times as large. 37,138 have been diagnosed with the disease since the outbreak began and in the past day alone 290 people, more than Spain, Italy and Germany, have died together.
If this data is not bad enough, Belgium ranks first among the dead from the plague to its population, above countries such as Spain, Italy Spain, and Iran. It is difficult to say exactly what were the causes of the country's largest morbidity and mortality rates, which holds good medical services.
The main reason for the intense outbreak in the country is a slow and unsatisfactory response from the local government. Local virologist Mar Watlat claimed the government had made no significant move to curb the spread of the disease in February, while allowing dozens of Belgian citizens to return from infected countries in Corona without undergoing any testing. State officials have blamed the country's ongoing political paralysis for responsibility for the government's late response.
Another dimension that has been exposed in the local press is the population's disobedience to the authorities' closure instructions. The English-language comic book Brussels Times reported that during one day of hot weather in the country, fines worth one hundred thousand euros were given to thousands of closure violators. Factors on the far right have blamed the immigrant population for disobeying the isolation and closure laws, but fines data show that they come from all walks of life. One young man in Brussels has accumulated over 14 fines in less than a day. Even the Brussels metro system has come out with a special advertising campaign in which it reminds passengers what the right reasons are to leave home.
But while it is hard to find a single reason for the severe outbreak in Belgium, the forecasts for the country are still rather bleak. In a difficult speech to the Flemish-speaking population in the country, the minister responsible for the Flemish population in the country, Jan Jambon, apologized to the public, saying: "We have made mistakes as a government, we are only human and we make an effort to deal with a crisis none of us have experienced."
Belgium is not the only European country in which there are no encouraging signs of a crisis in Corona today. Britain registered 888 dead today, up from dozens of dead yesterday, along with 5,542 new cases of corona diagnosed. These are high numbers showing that there is no significant decline in the rate of infection in the country. The number of dead in the UK now stands at 15,544.
In an unusual move, British Housing Minister Robert Generic attacked his government and said Britain should do more to obtain appropriate equipment and personnel to fight the virus. "We need to do more to bring our medical teams the protective equipment they need," said Generic.