Dutch tourists flood Belgium due to lockdown
Photo: Francois Lenoir / Reuters
Tourists from Holland are sent en masse to Belgium, which has not yet introduced a lockdown and closed public places. Reported by the NL Times.
Dutch tourists who take a day trip to Belgium to avoid a lockdown in the Netherlands have literally flooded the country. This was stated by the Governor of the Belgian Antwerp Katie Burks. She added that the Dutch do not show much solidarity in the fight against the omicron strain.
Belgian virologist Van Ranst said travel to Belgium should be discouraged, but recalled that Belgians traveled to the Netherlands in the same way during the lockdown, when no restrictive measures were imposed on the Dutch. “On the other hand, we shouldn't be afraid that they will suddenly bring a variant of the omicron strain here, because we have the same number of cases [infections]. But we have to keep [the number of infections] under control, ”added the virologist.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has already urged the Dutch not to travel to Belgium or Germany unless absolutely necessary, so as not to jeopardize the health care system in European countries due to the danger of the spread of the omicron strain.
On December 21, the WHO Regional Director for Europe, Hans Kluge, predicted the approach of the “next storm” of the coronavirus. Within a few weeks, he said, the omicron strain COVID19 will become dominant in many countries in the European region, “pushing already busy health systems closer to the brink of the abyss.”
Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Health officially recognized the omicron strain as the fastest spreading of all coronavirus variants.
