Belgium to hire 2,000 coronavirus contact tracers

By Agnes Szucs

BRUSSELS (AA) – Belgian authorities are planning to hire 2,000 investigators to trace whom COVID-19 patients have come in contact with, local media reported Tuesday.

The move is expected to help the country ease lockdown restrictions.

According to daily L’Echo, regional health ministers discussed the plan of “social mapping” during their meeting on Monday.

Healthcare is mainly a regional issue in the federal state of Belgium.

The region of Flanders, with the most reported cases, will hire 1,200 investigators, while Wallonia and Brussels will employ 600 and 200, respectively.

After attending a short training program, contact tracers will be able to map with whom the patients could have met and impose a 14-day quarantine.

The federal government led by Sophie Wilmes is expected to announce its detailed strategy on easing the lockdown on Friday.

The lockdown is in force until May 3.

The death toll from COVID-19 is slightly below 6,000 in Belgium and cases have crossed the 40,900 mark.

However, the number of hospitalizations continues to drop. Only 172 new patients were admitted to healthcare facilities over the last day compared to last week’s daily averages over 300. On the worst day – March 29 – since the outbreak, 629 people were admitted to hospital.

Currently, 4,976 patients are being treated in hospitals; 1,079 of them in intensive care units.

Belgian researchers will publish their latest findings in the Nature medicine journal, virologist Steven Van Gucht told health authorities on Tuesday.

The most important discovery is that in 44% of cases the virus gets transmitted from the carrier in the first two days, often when no symptoms are showing.

Since appearing in China last December, the virus has spread to at least 185 countries and regions, according to figures compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.

More than 2.4 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with over 171,000 deaths, and over 658,000 recovered.