No extra measures as weekly average for corona infections continues to rise in the Brussels-Capital Region
Despite a continued increase in the number of new coronavirus infections in the 19 municipalities that make up the Brussels-Capital Region, the regional authorities don’t plan to take any additional measures to stem the further spread of the virus. Last Thursday after a meeting of the region’s Mayors, public health officials and the First Minister in the regional government Rudi Vervoort (Francophone socialist), it was announced that measures including the mandatory wearing of face masks throughout Brussels would be taken if the weekly average number of new infections went above 50 per 100,000 population.
Last Thursday it stood at around 38 per 100,000 population. Since then it has risen to 42.9 per 100,000.
However, as this is still well below the figure of 50 per 100,000 population cited at the meeting no further action will be taken for the time being at least.
The First Minister’s spokeswoman Nany Gmoma told VRT News that “Preventative measures won’t be taken yet. We hope that the 50 threshold won’t be exceeded, but as soon as this is the case the necessary communication will be sent out to the people of Brussels about where and how a mask should be worn. In the meantime there are daily talks about the latest figures”.
Although the 50 cases per 100,000 population threshold has not been exceed in the Brussels-Capital Region as a whole, this is the case in 7 of its 19 municipalities: Anderlecht (74/100,000), Schaarbeek (55/100,000), Jette (55/100,000), City of Brussels (53/100,000), Sint-Agatha-Berchem (52/100,000), Ganshoren (52/100,000) and Sint-Gillis (50/100,000).
3 other municipalities are close to the threshold of 50/100,000: Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Sint-Joost-ten-Node (both 47/100,000) and Vorst (46/100,000). The municipality with the lowest weekly average number of new cases is Watermaal-Bosvoorde with 12 cases per 100,000 population.