This week Kranti has been missing some of her activities, like dance classes and swimming. She is less worried about Belgium, but now she worries about the situation in India. Kranti also discussed something important with her roommates. If you want to know more about Kranti, click here to read her bio.
Press the play button to find out what issue Kranti discussed with her roommates.
Current situation in Belgium 17-05-2020
Last week there was an ease of some restrictions for the first time since the lockdown. Since last week the number of cases has risen with 1831, and 345 more deaths. There number of corona patients in the hospitals and ICU is decreasing. That means there is less pressure on the hospitals. The number of deaths has also been dropping steadily.
However, the month of April has been the deadliest month for Belgium since the second world war. The peak was between the 1st and 12th of April. 639 people died on April 10, which is twice as much than usual. But the number of deaths may be overestimated, because it also includes deaths in nursing homes that were not officially confirmed to be caused by COVID-19. Nonetheless, a professor of demography thinks the numbers are pretty accurate.
Last week special contact tracers started to trace down people that had been in contact with an infected person. So far they have only been able to trace back about fifty to sixty percent of the patients contacts.
Death number
When looked at the number of COVID-19 deaths in hospitals of several European countries, Belgium scores worse than the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and France. It is unknown what the reason behind this is. The dense population may be a factor. Steven van Gucht, Belgian virologist, says it is too early to draw any conclusions.
High number of tests
One of the steps in the strategy of Belgium to end the lockdown is to do more testing. According to numbers on Statista and Our World in Data, Belgium is now in the top three countries when it comes to testing. They test around 19.900 people per day. Relatively speaking this comes down to 40.914 people per 1 million citizens. Neighboring country the Netherlands tests 13.768 per 1 million people, and in Germany it is 30.400 per million.
Phase two of the exit strategy
On Monday the 18th of May the second phase of the exit strategy will start. This means museums, zoos and libraries can reopen. The open air-markets can start again and people will be able to get a haircut. Funerals and weddings will be able to have up to thirty guests. There can be sport trainings outdoors of maximum twenty people. Also children will gradually go back to school.
1 in 4 Belgians gained weight
During the lockdown people were still allowed to cycle, go for walks, or go jogging as way of exercising. However, thirty percent exercised less than they normally do. According to this large-scale poll with 40.000 respondents, one in four Belgians gained weight since the corona crisis. This might be caused by all the sitting down. The percentage of people sitting down, or resting, for eight hours or more per day has doubled when compared to 2018.
The study also showed that people have been consuming less alcohol than usually, while people do tend to smoke more.
It might not have helped in the fight against weight gain that Belgians were asked to eat more fries. This was asked because there is a surplus of 750.000 tons of potatoes in the country.
Extras
The world’s biggest flower has been blooming at the botanical garden of Meise. If you want to get a look watch this video.
Can you use some positive news? Read this article for some good news from the last few weeks.
Curious how hairdressers can do their job next week? This article explains it all.
If you would like to know more about when the border with the Netherlands will reopen, you can read this article.
Manel van Nieuwland 
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