BELGIUM HARD HIT: NURSES WITH COVID-19 ASKED TO WORK

A hospital at the centre of a coronavirus hotspot in Belgium is asking its nurses to carry on working even if they test positive for COVID-19, according to Euronews.

Liege, situated in the east near the border with the Netherlands, has the highest coronavirus incidence rate in Belgium.

Coronavirus-positive nurses at a hospital in Liege have been asked to continue working as long as they are not displaying symptoms.

Dr Alexander Ghuysen, head of the emergency department at the hospital, told Euronews the decision had been a difficult one.

"It's getting worse and worse, we are reaching a critical point," he said.

He says that its a struggle every day to find solutions for beds and staff. Currently 20 per cent of staff members are off-duty due to COVID infections.

He explains that there is no risk of contagion, since those staff who tested positive with COVID will only come into contact with other patients with the virus.

"All the staff that is infected must eat in another place than the others. In a kind of infected room where they are only authorised to go there," he says, adding that the room is then cleaned and there is no close contact between infected and non-infected team members.

"I mean there’s a point where there’s nothing but bad solutions. It’s the point we are reaching now."

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