Belgium Recommends Self-Quarantine for Travelers from High-Risk Areas

The Belgian authorities have apparently not defined any health rules regarding the return from vacation of Belgians or Belgian-Moroccans. During a meeting of the Risk Management Group, they simply recommended that people arriving from areas they consider infected should "self-quarantine" for a period of 14 days after their return. However, systematic testing is not recommended, reports La Dernière Heure.

"We are counting on the good will of the people. Moreover, we have no regulations that require a person to confine themselves. We would need clearer national legislation to confine someone when the situation is suspicious. This text is one of the weapons we should have. However, we would need to have an ethical debate on this issue, but now is the time to do it," says Yves Van Laethem, inter-federal spokesman and infectious disease specialist at the CHU Saint-Pierre. In other words, vacationers have the free will to decide what to do to avoid a resurgence of covid-19 in Belgium.

"If the infection rate in the country is higher than ours, and for example the infection rate in these lockdown regions of Spain is 46 times higher than ours, the risk of being infected is therefore higher. To prevent these tourists from infecting people at home, they absolutely need to be isolated for at least two weeks. From a scientific point of view, it is certain that after two weeks there will no longer be any risk of contamination," suggests virologist Marc Van Ranst.