⁍ A lax summer and a fractured political system have left Belgium facing a second COVID-19 wave.


⁍ Belgium’s more than 10,000 deaths mean the country has among the world’s highest fatality rates per capita.


⁍ Belgium’s infection rate has risen to more than 800 per 100,000 for the past 14 days.


– “We are really close to a tsunami.” That from Belgium’s health minister, Frank Vandenbroucke, in reference to the H1N1 flu outbreak that has killed more than 10,000 people in his country over the past two months. Belgium was among the first countries in Europe to be hit by the flu, and Vandenbroucke says the current outbreak is worse than the first. The current outbreak has infected more than 800 people in 14 days, putting it in second place in Europe behind the Czech Republic, and nearly double the rate in France, Reuters reports. The H1N1 outbreak has been traced to a person who contracted the virus while traveling in August, the New York Times reports. The current outbreak has been traced to a person who had recently traveled to a country with an unusually high number of H1N1 cases. The current outbreak has also been traced to a person who had recently traveled to a country with an unusually high number of H1N1 cases. The current outbreak has been traced to a person who had recently traveled to a country with an unusually high number of H1N1 cases. In July, Belgium loosened rules, letting residents meet up to 15 people per week, although its infection rate was still slightly higher than in France or Spain and around double that in Germany or Italy. Now, Belgians may meet only one person. “Fifteen people. That was just back to normal life,” says a virologist. ” Awareness of the virus just dropped, but it was an illusion to think the threat had gone away.”



Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-belgium/after-lax-summer-hard-hit-belgium-again-faces-covid-tsunami-idUSKBN2761YJ