Belgium’s health minister has announced that healthcare workers must be fully vaccinated before January 1. Anyone who was not vaccinated on 1 April is no longer allowed to do their work. In this case, the class will usually follow.

One Brussels and Walloon union described the plan as a “declaration of war”. They don’t think it’s fair to treat caregivers more harshly than others.

Whether the vaccination obligation for healthcare staff will actually come is now uncertain. One of the ruling parties turned against her. These French-speaking social democrats have close ties to the trade unions.

The unions have announced measures and are now discussing this with their supporters.

Operations off the table

Because of the pandemic, operations in Belgian hospitals have also been postponed for several months. For example, the hospital in Leuven removed a man who was due to have a brain tumor removed from the operating room at the last minute because there was no room in the IC. So the operation was postponed in March.

“It’s something you wish you’d never do as a doctor, but with the new coronavirus wave, we’re faced with very difficult choices every day,” neurosurgeon Johan van Loon of UZ Leuven told Radio 2 Vlaams-Brabant. “There is a shortage of beds in regular wards, but also in intensive care.”