Coronavirus: Belgian minister who oversaw coronavirus response in intensive care with Covid

Former prime minister hospitalised as leading virologist calls for new lockdown

Sophie Wilmes was Belgium’s prime minister until early October (REUTERS)

Belgium’s foreign minister Sophie Wilmes – who led the country through the first six months of the coronavirus pandemic – is in intensive care with Covid-19, reports suggest.

The 45-year-old, who was replaced as prime minister earlier this month, said on Saturday that she had tested positive.

As Belgium faced calls for a second lockdown on Thursday, the nation’s public broadcaster VRT reported that she had been taken into intensive care.

Her spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but her successor Alexander De Croo took to Twitter to wish her a speedy recovery.

“No one is immune from this dangerous virus,” added Mr De Croo, who assumed Ms Wilmes’ role as premier after his majority coalition of seven parties replaced her caretaker administration on 2 October after nearly 500 days of post-election negotiations.

After testing positive, Ms Wilmes said her infection “probably occurred within my family circle” rather than at work, “given the precautions taken outside my home”.

It came days after she attended a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg, and her Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg also tested positive on Saturday.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who was also in attendance, announced he was self-isolating, but later tested negative for the virus.

However concerns were raised when the Council of the EU told Politico on Monday that it had not initiated contact-tracing procedures, saying it had received no notification of the infections.

This was quickly countered by Austria’s foreign ministry, which said it had immediately notified the bloc, Politico reported.

Meanwhile, infections and hospital admissions are continuing to rise in Belgium, which has among the world's highest rate of fatalities per capita.

Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke warned on Sunday of a possible “tsunami” ahead, with the country second only to the Czech Republic in Europe in terms of infections per capita over the past fortnight.

The country of 11 million people reported 9,693 new infections per day in the week to 18 October – a 75 per cent increase from the week before. An average of 319 people were admitted to hospital every day.

The government is set to meet on Friday to discuss the pandemic, following calls from leading virologist Marc Van Ranst for a short full lockdown in order to avoid drawn out partial measures, which he said would “exhaust and frustrate everyone” and devastate the economy.

Additional reporting by Reuters