On Friday, January 21, 2022, amid the uproar of the COVID-19 and its new strain called Omicron, the Belgium authorities have announced to ease the restrictions imposed due to the novel coronavirus for their population.
Meanwhile, it has also been determined that each person of the country would have to receive their booster shots against the deadly virus after five months to retain their COVID-19 passes. With only retained COVID-19 passes, people can access public places such as bars or cinemas.
Prime Minister Alexander De Cross also declared expanding the timings of opening for bars and restaurants to midnight from 11 p.m. and permitted people to access the indoor activities such as play areas and bowling alleys to reopen. He further asserted that the venues with having good ventilation facilities are allowed to host more people than now, and the respective changes will come into effect from next Friday, January 28, 2022.
While speaking at the press conference, De Cross asserted,” The high vaccination rate of our country against the COVID-19 pandemic gave us the confidence to ease the restrictions and take the step”. He further mentioned that people who have received their jabs of vaccine and are fully immunized were likely to be exposed to the deadly virus; moreover, there are 90 percent chance that they can’t be hospitalized.
As per reports and data, around 89 percent of the adult population of Belgium are fully inoculated, and out of them, 67 percent have also recovered their booster jabs against the contagious mutant.
De Cross further declared that from March 1, 2022, the previous immunization series would not be accepted after the completion of five months, and people would have to receive their booster jabs against the COVUD-19 virus. However, the series would be acceptable in terms of the negative test or recent recovery from the viral infection.
Further, Belgium is in the midst of the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the uproar of the infections is not anticipated for at least a couple of weeks. On Monday, more than 60,000 people were exposed to the viral infection.
However, the admission of COVID-19 patients in the hospital is facing a slower rate, and the number of people in intensive care is also coming down in the country.
