ABOUT LOCKDOWN IN BELGIUM FOR 52 DAYS

Three days ago our 52 days with lockdown ended here in Belgium. It is now gradually being lifted.  I want briefly to describe what happened during the 52 days.


The purpose of the lockdown was, of course, to stop the corona pandemic from spreading further and to remove it step by step.  

The government got special legislation approved, so that it could take decisions and act without the approval of Parliament each time.  A National Crisis Committee was created – chaired by the federal prime minister and including the prime ministers from each of the Belgian regions.  A scientific advisory committee advises the government and the crisis committee. A special Crisis Centre has 40 staff and is operational 24/7. It collects information from all sources, also from abroad, and it does the analysis and prepares recommendations.  One of its staff – not a politician – makes a press conference every day to explain the situation.  TV news also cover the development closely, often with independent experts from the universities.


The main initiatives as of March 12 were:


Closure of all schools, shops, restaurants, bars, cafes, cinemas and big events.

Request to everybody to stay at home – and not have any visitors at all.

Only food shops, pharmacies and gas stations were allowed to be open. And only for few visitors at a time.

Excursions were forbidden.  Only short walks in the neighbourhood of your house were permitted.

If you had to work you should work from home.  If this was not possible, you should be able to tell the police where you were going and why.

Control was everywhere, esp. where risks of many people being there together.

Face masks were and are strongly recommended, but only obligatory in public transportation and in railway stations.   The authorities distribute masks for free.



This lockdown was – as you see – more strict than in many other countries.


Belgium with its 11 mill. people, often living very closely to each other, was hit hard by the pandemic.  The Belgians were and are in general very good at following the instructions from the crisis committee.   The total number of infected were until yesterday ( May 11 ) 53.449. And the total number of deaths was 8.707.  It is, though, very difficult to compare these figures with other countries. The reason is that Belgium includes more possible infected people and more possible deaths from corona than others.  Experts here say that you probably have to reduce the figures with 50 % to be able to make an honest comparison with other countries. 


The 103 hospitals in Belgium have been able to cope well with the pandemic. They have all the way had extra capacity to deal with intensive care, when this was needed. But in the Homes for Elderly People etc. many problems have arisen. This was partly due to the fact that the staff was not trained to handle such a pandemic. And they also lacked the necessary equipment, especially in the beginning.


The communication around the pandemic has been very good and professional. A special home page was quickly established in four languages ( French, Flemish, German and English ):  www.info-coronavirus.be  It contains lots of very useful FAQs  ( questions-answers ).  A special Call Centre was available every day from 09.00 to 18.00.   And as already mentioned one of the staff of the Crisis Centre made a special press conference every day.


The new 45 year old liberal prime minister, Sophie Wilmès, is in charge of it all. She has an education in communication, is fluent in several languages, married to an Australian,  and has three kids.  She was earlier like me working in the EU Commission, but I do not know her personally.   She is very good at making the different political parties work together in this difficult situation. She is herself hard working and able to focus on the essentials.  She is an excellent and very active communicator.  People feel that she is talking to them and with them – not just teaching them. And she has during this crisis gone from being almost unknown to be very popular and supported all over the country.  


How did WE then experience this lockdown period?  As active and healthy seniors it has been easier for us than for many others, who had to look after their work and their children.  The other day we agreed:  In a way we have never felt better. No stress. No time pressure!  And yes, we have done things.  But not necessarily what we ought to have done – like sorting things and thrown out what we do not need any more !  And we have been active users of electronic services like Skype, Zoom, What’s App, Viber, etc. 


Of course, we were missing contact to other people. And also missing the possibility to go seeing things in our lovely country.   We are very happy that it all happened during spring time and not during the dark and cold winter months.  Our garden has seen more of us that it normally does 😊


And we have also experienced how the Belgians we met during our walks and our shopping were more smiling and even more friendly than they normally are.  They sort of showed the attitude:  yah, we are all in this together. So what not get the best possible out of it together!  I hope they felt the same about us!


At a later occasion I want to write about how we believe the long-term effects of this long lockdown will be.  We are sure that also a lot of good things will come out of it!