Belgium's recent coronavirus trends are concerning, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) judged on Wednesday.
The ECDC has divided European countries into groups of countries with stable trends, where the risk of infection is estimated to be low, and countries with "worrying trends," which face a moderate risk of Covid-19 spreading throughout the population and the healthcare system.
Belgium has now jumped from the first to the second category, which has an elevated risk for vulnerable people given the increased risk of infection and the high impact of the disease.
A subcategory of the countries with worrying trends is the one where the risk to the general population is also estimated to be high, for example because of the occupancy rate in hospitals and the extent to which health care personnel are being put to their limits.
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"The improvements that have been made in the organisation of aid, treatment and care are still not sufficient to avoid serious illnesses and deaths in large parts of vulnerable patients", the ECDC summarises in its report.
Seven countries - Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Malta, Romania, Spain and the Czech Republic - currently fall into this sub-category.
The ECDC stressed that the epidemiological situation seems to be deteriorating in most of the 20 countries with worrying trends, which means that many of them can actually be classified in the group of countries where the risk is highest.
The centre bases its assessment on the 14-day trend in the number of infections among people over 65 years of age.
The Brussels Times
