Belgium Rocked By Riots Against COVID Measures
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Belgian police tried to disperse thousands of people marching through Brussels amid mounting anger across Europe against government-imposed coronavirus restrictions.
Police fired water cannon and used teargas against protestors as opposed to compulsory health measures that the government is needed to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.
Banners on Sunday compared the stigmatization of the non-vaccinated to the treatment of Jews forced to wear yellow stars in Nazi Germany.
On Friday, the Belgian prime minister, Alexander de Croo, announced a series of measures to tighten sanitary rules. They include bringing school Christmas holidays forward and asking children aged six and over to wear masks.
“COVID= Organised Genocide,” said one sign. “The QR code is a Swastika,” declared another, referring to the EU’s COVID safe digital certificate.
On Wednesday, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said that in her view, it was time to “think about mandatory vaccination.” Speakers condemned her suggestion at the protest.
DOCTORS DOUBTS
Critics, including doctors, say such jabs will not prevent infection. Their protest came as in neighboring the Netherlands Princess Beatrix tested positive for COVID-19, despite receiving a COVID jab, officials said Sunday.
The 83-year-old former Dutch queen was tested after she experienced “mild cold complaints,” added the Government Information Service (RDV) in a statement.
The princess, who reportedly is fully vaccinated and had a booster shot, is “at home in isolation and adheres to the rules of life for people who have tested positive,” the RVD said.
Beatrix last week traveled to the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao. During the visit, she told reporters that she had received her COVID vaccination booster shot.
The news about her infection came after Prime Minister Mark Rutte imposed a nighttime lockdown in the Netherlands to combat the pandemic. He cited a surge in COVID-9 cases, though, among the population, 85 percent is vaccinated.
Beatrix reigned as queen from 1980 until 2013 when she abdicated in favor of her son King Willem-Alexander, who now faces the ongoing pandemic.
INTENSIVE CARE
In Belgium, authorities defended COVID restrictions saying about 800 people with severe forms of the disease are in intensive care in hospitals across the country.
Many of them are unvaccinated, though critics point out that about half of the patients received COVID-18 jabs.
Belgium, with a population of 11 million, says it recorded an average of more than 17,800 daily infections with Covid-19 over the past seven days, as well as 44 deaths.
That has led to overcrowding and the postponement of treatment for many other conditions such as prostate cancer, Worthy News learned.
Most people who die of COVID-19 are older adults with underlying health issues, according to experts and official data.
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