Protect yourself and protect the others

A new coronavirus, called Covid-19, appeared in China at the end of last year. Since then, this virus has spread all over the world, including Belgium. Health authorities in our country are doing everything possible to protect everyone’s health.

A. The following recommendations are still valid.

Together against the coronavirus

To slow down the spread of the virus, the FPS Health urges everybody to carefully observe the basic hygiene measures. Many of you have shared these guidelines in the past weeks, thanks! Feel free to keep on doing so. We also ask you to follow the advice listed below to limit unnecessary contacts. This will relieve the work of health professional to enable them to focus on the most vulnerable people.

In the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, everyone can contribute.

What can I do?

Everybody should apply the following hygiene measures:

1. Stay at home if you are ill.

2. Wash your hands regularly with soap and water.

3. Sneeze and blow your nose in a tissue handkerchief. Use each tissue only once and throw it away immediately in a covered rubbish bin.

4. You don’t have a tissue? Sneeze or cough into your elbow. Slow down the spread of the virus by observing the following advice:

5. Avoid shaking hands or kissing the persons you meet.

6. Pay a very special attention to people who are considered as being at risk, such as elderly people over 65, people with diabetes or with a heart, lung or kidney disease, babies up to 6 months, pregnant women, people with a weakened immune system.

7. Children do not belong to those groups of people at risk, but they can easily transmit the virus. Therefore, it is recommended to avoid contacts between children and elderly people.

8. Avoid contacts with persons who are visibly ill.

B. Additional recommendations apply from now up to 31 March.

**Recommendations for schools **

Children may still go to school (if they are not ill, of course). Here are a few guidelines to limit the spread of the virus at school:

• Temporarily postpone school fairs, open door days and parent-teacher meetings.
• Avoid going to places where many vulnerable people are present.
• One-day excursions can be maintained, especially if they take place in the open air. On the contrary, school trips of several days in a foreign country are not advisable. Recommendations for businesses

Businesses are urged to avoid as much as possible gatherings of too many people in the same place:

• Offer your employees the possibility of working from home.
• Postpone meetings or prompt video conferencing.
• Temporarily postpone employee celebrations.
• Make sure people are not too close to each other at work. People should stay at a sufficient distance from each other.
• If possible, allow flexible working hours or allow your employees to go on leave, so that less people are present at the same time in the same place (and in public transport).
• Avoid organizing trainings involving many participants. Recommendations for events

The government recommends inside events with more than 1000 persons not to take place.

People at risk, which means persons over 65 years of age, people with diabetes or with a heart, lung or kidney disease, babies up to 6 months, pregnant women and people with a weakened immune system, are strongly advised not to take part in any big event. They are more at risk to get contaminated.

For further information

If you have any questions: please visit https://www.info-coronavirus.be/en/ or call 0800/14 689.