Brussels: Belgium will introduce additional drastic measures against the Covid-19 pandemic, including the extension of a nationwide curfew from from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The announcement of the new measures, which will come into force from Monday, was made by Minister-President of the Brussels Capital Region Rudi Vervoort on Saturday at a meeting with 19 mayors of the region, reports Xinhua news agency.
Under the new measures, cinemas, theatres, museums, cultural centers and exhibition venues will remain closed. Sports halls will also be closed, and the wearing of masks will remain compulsory throughout the Brussels region.
Meanwhile, the governments of Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation implemented a partial lockdown October 23. The government of Wallonia has entrusted the governors of the five provinces with the task of enforcing a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. until November 19.
The figures on the epidemiological situation in Belgium are still increasing. In the seven-day period (from October 14-20), an average of 11,201 new infections per day were reported on Saturday by the public health institute Sciensano.
A daily average of 37.1 deaths was also reported by Sciensano during the period. Over the last seven days (from October 17-23), the average number of hospital admissions was 399 per day.
Currently 4,061 Covid–19 patients are hospitalized, 632 of whom are in intensive care. To date, Belgium has reported 287,700 Covid-19 cases and 10,658 deaths.