Coronavirus: high death toll worries Belgium
The country recorded a peak in the number of deaths relative to the number of people on April 10. At issue: the late responses from the authorities.
Sophie Wilmès, the Belgian Prime Minister, announced on Wednesday April 15 the extension until May 3 of the confinement measures initially fixed until April 20. Measures to gradually exit the emergency phase will come at this time, said the head of the federal government, a coalition temporarily supported by seven opposition parties.
The Covid-19 epidemic remains worrying for the time being, admitted Wilmès. The country was actually shocked when it learned that it had recorded, on Friday April 10, a peak in the number of deaths - 496 -, thus establishing a sad world record, that of the highest number of deaths per million inhabitants in l space of a single day. An awkward official announcement since it included disappearances, which have occurred in recent weeks, but not recorded until then, of residents of retirement homes.
In any case, the episode focused attention and raised a double question: is Belgium experiencing excess mortality, and why? With its 11.4 million inhabitants, on Thursday April 16, it totaled 4,857 deaths from the Covid-19. Austria (9 million inhabitants) and Sweden (10.2 million inhabitants) announced 393 and 1,203 respectively. Even more striking: the kingdom has 1,300 more deaths than the Netherlands (17, 3 million inhabitants, 3,134 dead), the neighbor often blamed for his strategy of "intelligent confinement", less restrictive than that decreed since March 18 in Belgium. Compared to its other neighbor, Germany (83 million inhabitants, 3,528 dead), Belgium totals, proportionally, eight times more deaths.
"Overvaluation"
Questioned on April 14 by Le Vif magazine, Philippe Laurent, former boss of Doctors Without Borders Belgium and the Red Cross, is scathing: "In a few days, Belgium will be in first place in the ranking of the countries with the most large number of deaths per capita. "Do the Belgian health authorities" drown the fish ", as this expert claims?
The country recorded a peak in the number of deaths relative to the number of people on April 10. At issue: the late responses from the authorities.
Sophie Wilmès, the Belgian Prime Minister, announced on Wednesday April 15 the extension until May 3 of the confinement measures initially fixed until April 20. Measures to gradually exit the emergency phase will come at this time, said the head of the federal government, a coalition temporarily supported by seven opposition parties.
The Covid-19 epidemic remains worrying for the time being, admitted Wilmès. The country was actually shocked when it learned that it had recorded, on Friday April 10, a peak in the number of deaths - 496 -, thus establishing a sad world record, that of the highest number of deaths per million inhabitants in l space of a single day. An awkward official announcement since it included disappearances, which have occurred in recent weeks, but not recorded until then, of residents of retirement homes.
In any case, the episode focused attention and raised a double question: is Belgium experiencing excess mortality, and why? With its 11.4 million inhabitants, on Thursday April 16, it totaled 4,857 deaths from the Covid-19. Austria (9 million inhabitants) and Sweden (10.2 million inhabitants) announced 393 and 1,203 respectively. Even more striking: the kingdom has 1,300 more deaths than the Netherlands (17, 3 million inhabitants, 3,134 dead), the neighbor often blamed for his strategy of "intelligent confinement", less restrictive than that decreed since March 18 in Belgium. Compared to its other neighbor, Germany (83 million inhabitants, 3,528 dead), Belgium totals, proportionally, eight times more deaths.
"Overvaluation"
Questioned on April 14 by Le Vif magazine, Philippe Laurent, former boss of Doctors Without Borders Belgium and the Red Cross, is scathing: "In a few days, Belgium will be in first place in the ranking of the countries with the most large number of deaths per capita. "Do the Belgian health authorities" drown the fish ", as this expert claims?
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