Quarantine in Belgium extended

Rigid quarantine in Belgium officially extended until may 3, the police will fine any violators. This was stated by Prime Minister of Belgium Sophie Wilmes on Wednesday at a press conference following the meeting of the national security Council of the Kingdom.

"We need to extend the quarantine measures until may 3. We haven’t reached the point where we can remove the restrictions. Law enforcement will continue to penalize violators, she said. – Speech does not go about any easing of the quarantine".

At the same time, the government of the Kingdom did not impose new measures on toughening of conditions of the inhabitants of the Kingdom, who often do not observe on the street the requirement to keep the distance of 1.5 m from each other.

The Prime Minister once again urged the Belgian citizens to exercise common sense, and "to postpone the release on the street, if there is no possibility to observe social distance".

Wilmes also refused to give any answers about the possible timing of the start of gradual abolition of quarantine measures.

"I don’t want to give false promises or guarantees", – said the Prime Minister.

the Record infections

On Wednesday, the number of new cases of infection with coronavirus in Belgium for the last day was 2 454, which is an absolute record for the Kingdom. The largest number infected per day was prior to that was about 1 800 people. In this April 14, the Ministry of health of the Kingdom reported only 530 new cases of infection, noting the beginning of a decline in the number of cases per day, which was violated the next day.

The total number of cases to date is 33 573 people. The number of deaths over the past day rose by 283 people and was achieved 4440. In hospitals there are 5524 patient, 1204 of which are in intensive care.

On March 14 in Belgium there are strict national quarantine. Initially, it was administered to 5 April, but on 27 March the authorities have decided to extend it until April 19, with the possibility to postpone the termination until may 3.

In the Kingdom closed all educational, cultural and public institutions, students and pupils transferred to distance education, banned all public events, regardless of the number of participants. All private companies encouraged to transfer employees to remote work. Watch the work of state institutions was reduced, without changes operate only emergency services.

The Kingdom also closed its borders and forbade any trip to the country. Residents are allowed to move only within their district. Transport and shops they have to keep your distance.

During a pandemic, the coronavirus has infected more than 2 million people, more than 126 thousand died.