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New coronavirus measures come into force from today

While some of the measures agreed at Friday’s meeting of the Consultative Committee came into force on Saturday, many take effect from today. Children from age of 6 must now wear face coverings at school and all indoor events with more than 200 participants are banned. The rules on quarantine for schools have also been tightened.

Flandersnews.be provides a summary of the latest measures, all of which are on top of the measures already in force.

Education

From today all children from the age of 6 must wear a face covering at school. Since Saturday children from the age of 6 have also been obliged to abide by the rules on the wearing of face coverings that previously were applicable to all those aged 10 and above. This means that they have to wear face coverings on public transport, inside shops and at other indoor publicly accessible locations such as libraries and cinemas.

CO2 meters are now mandatory in all classrooms. If CO2 levels exceed 900 ppm action must be taken to improve ventilation by, for example, opening windows. The classroom must be vacated if CO2 concentrations exceed 1,200 ppm.

From now on an entire class will have to quarantine if more than two pupils have tested positive for coronavirus during the previous 7 days. Parents are also advised to regularly self-test their children.

Other activities that take place outside school (school trips and the like) are banned until after the Christmas holidays. Primary school pupils will break up for the Christmas holidays a week early and will have three weeks’ holiday instead of two. 

From today secondary schools will switch to hybrid (part distance learning/part face-to-face teaching) teaching. A maximum of 50% of lessons may be taught face-to-face. The end of term exams will take place as usual with pupils sitting their exams at school. 

Events and freetime

All indoor events with more than 200 participants are banned from today. Anyone attending such an event (play, concert, conference debate, film,) must wear a face covering and remain seated throughout. A CST (corona pass) with be required for all events at which more than 50 people are in attendance. 

All indoor activities and gatherings are banned. The exceptions to this are sport (you will still be able to go to the gym), gatherings in private homes or at a holiday home, weddings and funerals. These measures took effect from Saturday. Indoor sporting events (basketball, volleyball, etc) must take place without spectators. 

The rest of the rules

There is no change for the hospitality industry. In bars and restaurants, you must remain seated with no more than 6 per table. Hospitality outlets must remain closed between the hours of 11pm and 5am.

Museums and cinemas may remain open. Cinemas are limited to 200 people per screening. There must be at least 1.5 metres between each “bubble” (family, group of friends).

Tele-work remains mandatory 4 days a week for all that are able to. Works’ parties and team building events are banned.

Outdoor sport such as professional football and hockey may take place with spectators. However, the spectators must wear face coverings. 

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