{"id":91251,"date":"2020-10-16T21:10:32","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T18:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/belgium-shuts-restaurants-imposes-curfew-in-virus-fight\/"},"modified":"2020-10-16T21:10:32","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T18:10:32","slug":"belgium-shuts-restaurants-imposes-curfew-in-virus-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/belgium-shuts-restaurants-imposes-curfew-in-virus-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"#Belgium shuts restaurants, imposes curfew in virus fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Belgium shuts restaurants, imposes curfew in virus fight<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Belgium\"
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Belgium on Friday ordered all cafes and restaurants to close for four weeks and imposed a curfew as it seeks to tackle a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.\n <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced the measures, which come into effect on Monday, after a meeting of the Belgian government’s crisis unit, warning that COVID-19 cases are rising “exponentially”.<\/p>\n

With more than 10,300 deaths from a population of 11.5 million, Belgium is one of the worst affected countries in Europe.<\/p>\n

“Week after week, the figures are doubling, they’re skyrocketing… it’s an exponential increase,” De Croo told a news<\/a> conference.<\/p>\n

The Brussels city region ordered bars and cafes to close last week, but Friday’s announcement extends the restriction nationwide.<\/p>\n

The new nationwide limits announced Friday include a midnight to 5:00 am curfew\u2014aimed at preventing people hosting parties at home\u2014and a ban on the sale of alcohol after 8:00 pm.<\/p>\n

Working from home must now “become the norm”, De Croo said, while theatres and cinemas are allowed to stay open provided they respect social<\/a> distancing.<\/p>\n

Deputy prime minister Georges Gilkinet said the decision to close cafes and restaurants\u2014deemed high-risk venues for spreading the virus\u2014was taken to try to head off another full lockdown like the one Belgium enforced earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

He warned “the situation is serious from a health point of view”, and we must “prevent our healthcare system from becoming saturated”. <\/p>\n

“Our hospitals are clogged,” he added.”The figures are as high as they were in March when we decided on a lockdown, that’s what we absolutely want to avoid”. <\/p>\n

The national lockdown helped bring cases down, but new infections\u2014as well as serious cases involving hospital admissions\u2014are rising again.<\/p>\n

Belgium has recorded 191,959 COVID cases and 10,327 deaths as of Friday.<\/p>\n

Following a surge in infections in September, the rate of hospital admissions has accelerated in recent days, particularly in Brussels and Belgium’s French-speaking southern provinces.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2020 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Belgium shuts restaurants, imposes curfew in virus fight (2020, October 16)
\n retrieved 16 October 2020
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2020-10-belgium-restaurants-weeks-virus.html<\/p>\n

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