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Covid-19: Belgium barricades itself in the face of variants

2021-01-22T19:52:28.710Z


Only travelers traveling for "essential" reasons will be able to leave or join the Kingdom. They will have to sign a declaration on their honor.


Correspondent in Brussels

The measure, which had been in the air for several days, was confirmed Friday evening, after a meeting between the Belgian federal government and representatives of the federated entities.

Non-essential travel to and from Belgium will be prohibited from January 27 until March 1.

A list of activities deemed essential will be specified at the start of next week and those who wish to leave or go to Belgium will have to sign a sworn certificate stating that their trip actually responds to an essential reason: work, family emergency (marriage, burial) , illness of a loved one), parenthood, etc.

This ban will not affect border residents who will be able to continue to cross the borders provided that their movement outside the country does not exceed 48 hours.

Read also:

Covid-19: is a re-containment inevitable?

Given these new restrictions, Belgians who were planning to go to France for the February holidays will therefore review their plans.

Just like those who planned to go shopping in Lille in the next few days to take advantage of the sales.

"

We are not going to build a wall around Belgium but we are limiting movement

", justified the Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, while asserting that the country needed "

ramparts

" to block the variants of the virus .

Cautious, he had tested this measure with his European counterparts Thursday evening, during a video conference devoted to the coronavirus.

And no objections were raised so some of them are considering doing the same.

Read also:

Covid-19: the British variant is "linked to a higher degree of mortality" announces Boris Johnson

Belgium has recorded more than 20,600 deaths due to Covid since last March.

Compared to its population of 11.5 million, it is still the most bereaved country in the world ahead of Slovenia, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

Since taking over the reins of the federal government on October 1, 2020, Alexander de Croo has significantly tightened anti-Covid measures.

Not without some success since the country manages, at this stage, to contain the contaminations.

Relative to the population, they are two times less important than in France.

Belgium is one of the countries with the lowest contamination rate.

It is proof that when we decide to do so, we can do great things in this country,

”he also congratulated himself at the start of his press conference.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-01-22

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