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. 2021 Nov 27;18(23):12489. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182312489

Table 1.

Overview of non-pharmaceutical interventions in Belgium.

Date Description
18 March 2020 Closing schools and suspending all cultural, leisure, and non-essential activities
Summer 2020 Resume most activities with strict protocols, including restrictions on capacity, dwelling time, and social contacts
1 September 2020
  • Wearing a mask is mandatory in public places

  • Teleworking (working from home) is recommended

  • Social bubble of close contacts consists of five people per month

  • Shopping is possible as a couple, with no time limit, but with a maximum capacity applicable to the shop

  • Restaurants and bars are open, with minimal distance between tables of 1.5 m and sanitary protocols

  • Sport facilities are open with restrictions on capacity and with sanitary protocols

  • Primary schools are open without restrictions. Secondary schools are open with face mask mandate for pupils and teachers. Higher education is open with restrictions on capacity per lecture hall and mask mandate for students and teachers;

  • Public events are allowed with a maximum of 200 people indoors and 400 outdoors

23 September 2020 Shopping without maximum capacity allowed and the social bubble of five contacts replaced to unlimited contacts, but a maximum of 10 adults per social gathering
19 October 2020
  • Close contacts are limited to one person

  • Private and public gatherings are limited to four people

  • Teleworking is mandatory for all occupations where this is possible

  • Bars and restaurants are closed

  • A curfew is installed between midnight (earlier in some regions) and 5 a.m., with a ban on alcohol sales from 8 p.m. onward

  • Indoor activities can continue under existing protocols

  • Audiences for sports events are halved from 400 to 200 spectators

23 October 2020 Audiences banned for sports events, class occupancy rate reduced in higher education, the capacity of indoor cultural events reduced and amusement parks and zoological gardens closed
2 November 2020 Non-essential shops and non-medical contact professions closed. Hotels remained open, but bars and restaurants were closed