Due to Belgium’s surging coronavirus infection rate and its current status as the worst-hit country in the European Union, the government decided over the weekend to allow only four people at gatherings, including in shuls and at weddings.

Leaders of the frum community have been attempting to influence the government to increase the number of participants to ten but to no avail as of yet, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported.

An askan in Antwerp told B’Chadrei that the problem is that the government categorizes shuls with churches and mosques. Four people are sufficient for churches and mosques: the priest or muezzin, a photographer and two technicians who take care of the live broadcast.

The askan said that the new regulation is also wreaking havoc on families who have weddings planned.

“The comparison between Jews and other religions is the problem because as much as we explain the difference, they simply don’t understand what the problem is with davening alone or getting married via Zoom,” the askan said. “They tell us to delay weddings which isn’t always possible. We don’t know what will be.”

Belgium has imposed a partial lockdown in a new bid to gain control of the pandemic. As COVID-19 infections continued their record rise on Friday, the government moved to restrict travel and shopping. Family contact will also be reduced to an absolute minimum of one outside the closest cluster for the next 6 weeks. Remote work will be mandatory.

Hospitals and experts have long complained that Belgium’s measures were too lax over the summer, when the pandemic eased, and warned recently that unless there was a drastic lockdown the nation’s once-vaunted health system would soon face breaking point.

“We are going towards a reinforced confinement with only one goal: avoiding that health care services collapse,” said Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, as he announced the measures. “It is now in our hands, it is in your hands. These really are the last-chance measures and it is up to all of us to make sure that these measures produce a result.”

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control on Friday ranked Belgium as the worst affected nation in the 27-nation bloc, with 1,600 cases per 100,000 people. Hotspots like Spain and Italy have less than a third of that total, highlighting how acute the crisis is.

France, with proportionally fewer than half the cases, announced a second, full nationwide lockdown Wednesday. Belgium, however, will still allow people to travel to their hotel or secondary residence, often on the coast or in the verdant Ardennes hills.

The one-week school vacation which started Friday will be extended for an extra week.

After surpassing the spring record on Thursday, the number of hospital patients in Belgium, a nation of 11.5 million, broke the 6,000-mark and stood at 6,187, a rise of 263 in a day.

“Unfortunately, we cannot yet see the long-expected turnaround in figures,” said virologist Steven Van Gucht. He said that the true total of infections is higher than reported because testing has been reduced for specific categories of people.

Patients in intensive care units reached 1,057 from 993 the day earlier, and virologists have warned that unless tougher measures have a quick impact the saturation point of 2,000 patients will be reached on Nov. 6.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem & AP)