The Belgian lockdown exit strategy

Although the communication could be better, the exit strategy for Belgium seems good and consistent.

First, there is no denying that the unveiling of the exit plans was very confusing and unclear. There was too much information and too many speakers. And the PowerpPoint slides looked like they were made by a 9-year old who made them out of boredom as he couldn’t go to school….

Consequently, the message got a bit lost. And the message itself seems very consistent. Starting from  the 4^th of May, some businesses may open again, but shops may only re-open on the 11^th of May. This seems a little bit too early to me, just like the re-opening of the schools on the 18^th of May. But the government has declared that nothing was written in stone and everything can be re-evaluated when the situation changes. I think a flexible strategy is indeed the way to go, although with the lack of good communication a lot of people ignored the “not written in stone”-part.

Furthermore, I think the focus now on mouth masks is a good measure to limit the risks of contagion during the less strict lockdown that is coming. There has been a lot of consternation surrounding if those mouth masks were needed or not. It might be a little uncomfortable and it is not a miracle solution, but it helps a little.

In conclusion, we need to stay very careful, but I think we are on the right track with our exit strategy.

If you want to read more about this, you can check this article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52421723