Professor Erika Vlieghe believes that a new, “tough” information campaign about the corona virus should be launched soon. According to Vlieghe, many people who are now ill know very little about the dangers of the corona pandemic and the measures we must follow. This ignorance and our inappropriate behavior have translated into sharply increasing figures in recent weeks. New, well thought-out measures are therefore imperative. “If your house is on fire, you have to do something”, Vlieghe says in “The morning” on Radio 1.
An average of more than 2,100 infections, with peaks above 3,000 last week. The corona figures no longer lie: “If you look at the trends in the longer term, you see that it is a big upward trend,” says infectiologist Erika Vlieghe (UZ Antwerp).
A few weeks ago they already noticed this with the GPs, but now the hospitals are also sounding the alarm, because more and more COVID patients have to be admitted. “That puts enormous pressure on hospitals,” says Professor Vlieghe.
Extinguish
Action must be taken to prevent this pressure from becoming unsustainable in the long term. “If your house is on fire, you have to do something,” says Vlieghe. The question is what. This requires careful thought, the professor adds.
Vlieghe is one of the experts thinking about new measures: as a member of the Celeval she advises the government. On behalf of the National Security Council, it is currently developing a so-called barometer, in which a set of measures is taken depending on the level of the epidemic.
