COVID-19 selected news snippets for Tuesday, 12 May 2020.

Brussel city's assembly member for culture, Delphine Houba, has given the Manneken-Pis a tailor-made face mask (see below). The statue had already worn an unofficial mask, donated by the public, for several weeks.

The Woluwe-Saint-Pierre and Woluwe-Saint-Lambert communes have followed Etterbeek in requiring facemasks in shopping areas. The measures are due to come into effect from today.

Road traffic in Belgium is picking up, according to data from satnav firm Coyote. Traffic was down more than 90% at some points in late March and early April. On 20 March, the roads were still 77% quieter, but last Monday they were 61% down on usual and by Sunday the figure was 52%.

Contact tracing started yesterday, but some fraudulent activity has already been noted by the police. FYI official contact tracers will call only from 02 214 19 19 and contact texts are from 8811.

Data update of 12 May. 330 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Belgium over the past 24 hours of which 25 (8%) were in Brussels. To date, a total of 53 779 confirmed cases have been reported in Belgium with 5 485 (10%) cases located in Brussels.

In the past 24 hours, only 43 patients with COVID-19 have been hospitalised and 35 people left hospital. Between 15 March and 11 May, a total of 16 322 patients with COVID-19 have entered hospital and 13 732 people have left.

65 new deaths from COVID-19 in Belgium have been reported in the past 24 hours of which 5 (8%) were in Brussels. To date, a total of 8 761 deaths from the disease have been reported in Belgium of which 1 353 (15%) were in Brussels.

Currently 465 people are in intensive care units in Belgian hospitals.

Read the daily report (in French) here.

Useful Links

Federal Government COVID-19 information

The Bulletin's COVID-19 webpage (updated daily)