In Belgium, during the press conference, the virologist Steven Van Gucht made a statement in which he mentioned the requirement for the nation to switch to the ‘Code yellow’ on its Coronavirus barometer might be met on 20 March.
To switch to code yellow, the requirements should be that there should be around 300 of the admission in intensive care Units of the COVID positive individuals as well as over 65 people admitted in the hospital should be observed on a per-day basis.
The cases in Belgium has been decreasing under 300 ICU patients on Tuesday, and the first condition has already been met.
Van Gucht further mentioned, “If the current trend continues, by the beginning of March, we could be below 150 hospital admissions per day. By 20 March, that could be fewer than 65. That way, we would meet both conditions for code yellow.”
At this time, there are 179 individuals admitted to the hospital on a per-day basis. There is a 27 percent drop from the last seven day period but still well above 65.
Meanwhile, Van Gucht also highlighted that the relaxation that took effect on 18 February when Belgium moved into ‘Code Orange’ is not yet sufficiently clear.
Moreover, the switch to ‘Code yellow’ means that the COVID Safe Ticket (CST) will no longer be needed to attend the events or gain access to the hospitality venues.
At the beginning of this current week, the Walloon Health Minister named Christie Morreale mentioned that she would raise a question to the Walloon government to prepare the implementation decrees, to make the annulment of the CST possible as the Consultative Committee declared.
On Friday, 25 February, the Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke’s cabinet has made the declaration contrary to previous announcements, and the CST will not expire after all for those who have not had a booster shot 1 March.
Furthermore, the administration will not be able to amend the lawmaking in time.
