The governors of Belgium's ten provinces are jointly asking the country's different governments to hold a new Consultative Committee to discuss stricter measures as soon as possible.
The increasing pressure on hospitals and the mathematical models that do not immediately predict a decline in the epidemic caused the appeal, West Flemish Governor Carl Decaluwé confirmed to the Belga News Agency.
"Based on the current problems in the hospitals and the ever-increasing pressure on them, we have no choice but to intervene," he said. "That is best done at the federal level in order to keep an overview. All provinces are in alarm phase five. So it makes little sense to take different measures separately."
Additionally, the governors are also asking for an accelerated rollout of the third/booster vaccination. Last week, the authorities announced that there was no concrete timing yet, but that it would happen as soon as possible.
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Normally, the next Consultative Committee is only planned at the beginning of January, after the latest set of new measures entered into force last weekend.
On Tuesday, however, East-Flanders governor Carina Van Cauter already announced stricter measures: parties and other celebrations that are not professionally organised will be forbidden for the next four weeks.
On Wednesday morning, Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon said on Radio 1 that the best course of action was to wait to see the effect of the measures that have been taken at the national level before introducing new ones.
“There is enough flexibility, as the past has shown. If necessary, the Consultative Committee can meet within the hour,” he said.
