Demonstration of the Horeca sectors (hotels, restaurants, cafes) against the closures in Namur in Belgium on February 25, 2021. -

/ SIPA

How to deal with health security and economic emergency?

As the “Zero Covid” objective is currently out of reach in closed public places, Belgian experts suggest putting in place safety devices (disinfection, ventilation of the premises) under the control of the public authorities to reopen them. cafes, restaurants and theaters.

Considering the "exasperation" in these private sectors of activity for nearly six months, "it is time to adapt our strategy", write in a daily newspaper

Le Soir

three experts among the most listened to in the country in this health crisis .

Strict protocols

Their postulate: the restrictions are likely to be observed less and less in the coming weeks, including by certain traders, and the logic of sector-by-sector regulation creates friction between them, as well as "a permanent political haggling. and harmful to confidence in the merits of the measures ”.

One solution would be to force the operators of cafes, restaurants, theaters or cinemas to provide a certain number of anti-Covid devices, which would be comparable to “fire safety” with which “there is no need to compromise”, continue epidemiology researcher Marius Gilbert and infectious disease specialists Leïla Belkhir and Nathan Clumeck.

"Ventilation and air disinfection devices, EPA filters, CO2 detectors, traffic protocols: all these means exist and should be mobilized to help make our public places places where transmission can be reduced to a residual risk perfectly acceptable, even if it means supplementing them with additional protocols such as wearing a mask or using tests during sensitive periods, ”they add.

According to them, "the municipalities could be invested with the responsibility of advising, supporting and verifying the" covid safe "compliance of public places" and "the same approach should be undertaken in public or private companies", "with possible financial support. of State ".

New restrictions since the end of March

"It is probably much less expensive for public spending to support these investments than to pay subsidies for the closure or partial unemployment of so-called non-essential activities to which new epidemic resurgences could expose us", argue the experts.

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Belgium, a country of 11.5 million inhabitants where the pandemic has killed more than 23,000 people, experienced a new turn of the screw in the restrictions at the end of March to stem the third wave.

Hairdressers had to lower the curtain again and schools were closed a week before the Easter holidays (which end on April 18).

Closed for nearly six months, venues and cafes and restaurants (the catering industry in Belgium) require the prospect of reopening for the spring.

A meeting around Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is scheduled for Wednesday.

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