The number of confirmed Covid-19 infections in the Brussels-Capital Region has passed the threshold of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and the wearing of a face mask in public is now mandatory in all of the region.
Anyone over the age of 12 must wear a mask covering nose and mouth in any public place. The rule applies as well to a private place accessible to the public such as a shop or a library. Police in the nineteen communes of the Brussels Region have been instructed to enforce the new measure.
Some exceptions will be allowed, for example when taking part in strenuous physical activity such as work or sport. Individuals who cannot wear a mask for medical reasons may wear a plastic facial screen.
It is important to note that the threshold had been passed already a while back in some communes. Saint-Gilles, for instance, had reported 54 contagion cases and Saint-Josse’s incidence was of 58.
The overall threshold in the region had not triggered any measures due to other communes’ low incidence, as it was the case in Watermael-Boitsfort with less than 20 confirmed cases. The incidence for the 19 communes in Brussels for the period from the 2nd to the 8th of August reached 54.4 per 100,000 inhabitants.
