This Friday, Codeco set up a new barometer in Belgium. Objective: to provide better visibility on the near future to the various sectors affected by restrictive measures (public events, Horeca, recreational activities, etc.). A series of preventive measures will be related to different parameters.
In the show 24 Hours Livee, Steven Van Gucht was incredibly optimistic for the next few months in Belgium. “I do think that the spring and summer periods will be very pleasant,” he said. “I even suppose that the population will be able to do whatever they want.”
With his crystal ball, the virologist tries to predict the future. Yet 60,000 infections were recorded in our country last week. And this curve only goes up. Which, once again, does not worry Steven Van Gucht. “Soon everything will get better”, he added. “In February the numbers will slowly start to drop and we can move towards code orange. Then more and more things will be possible and we will slide towards yellow.”
From there to imagine a summer of all possibilities? A summer like the good old days with large-scale festivals, for example? “I think so. Concerts will certainly be allowed without masks and where people can move around without restrictions. It should be possible once the good weather arrives.”
There is therefore hope. However, last year, some virologists also tuned in to say that the summer of 2021 would be perfectly normal. It was not the case. Marc Van Ranst also sides with his colleague. “We are all convinced that we will soon enter the realm of freedom”, said the virologist. “I also believe in an unrestricted summer. The difference? The improvement in our immunity. Thanks to vaccination, we recover from a previous infection more easily because our immune system does a better job. We react better to a new infection and we react with less force to new symptoms. Which guarantees one thing: this new wave will soon die out. And we can face the next one with even better immunity. That’s what we can hope for.”, he concluded.