Virologist calls for a negative coronavirus test to be a prerequisite to being allowed to enter Belgium
The infectious diseases expert Professor Marc Van Ranst has called for the provision of a negative coronavirus test result to be a requirement for anyone wishing to enter Belgium from abroad. Professor Van Ranst was speaking on VRT News’ Sunday morning television topical discussion programme ‘De zevende dag’. He believes that we are currently being “far to slack” when it comes to checking that people that come to Belgium from abroad aren’t infected with the novel coronavirus.
"We process at lot of tests at our lab that come from people wishing to travel wherever. They must provide a negative test result before they can enter that particular country. Here in Belgium it’s come as you please. Making such tests mandatory would have a very dissuasive effect and it would help trace a lot of people that are infected”.
Currently anyone entering (or returning to) Belgium after having spent longer than 48 hours abroad is obliged to fill in a form. Those returning from Red Zone area (currently most of Europe) are obliged to quarantine for 10 days and to take a coronavirus test on day 7.
The Federal Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Flemish liberal), who was also a guest in the programme, said that the police will be given the means to allow them to check that people are respecting the self-quarantine rule.