“There’s no reason to panic. We know what needs to be done.”
The number of new infections and hospitalisation linked to coronavirus is continuing to rise at a worrying rate” says virologist Steven Van Gucht of the national crisis centre, but he advises against panic. Prof Van Gucht was speaking at the crisis centre’s news conference called to clarify the figures.
Prof Van Gucht notes that all figures are going up at an increasing rate. At the present rate infections are doubling every week, hospitalisations every 8 days and the number of patients in critical care every 12 days.
“At this rate our maximum number of critical care beds, 2,000 beds, will be full by mid-November. I have every confidence we will be able to avert this scenario.”
The virologist says he and his colleagues anticipated this evolution, but “now everybody should take the situation seriously”. He adds that the present situation is no reason for panic because everybody knows what needs to be done: we need to keep to the basic rules, limit contacts and keep our distance from others.