Belgium

Belgian professional football player Tuur Dierckx was sentenced to one month in prison and must also pay a fine of 800 euros after he hosted an illegal Covid-19 party in December. Four other professionals who had attended the party were fined between 400 and 600 euros.

In court, the players' lawyers had asked for leniency. Professional footballers are in a bubble with other players, coaches and staff, so that despite the pandemic, they no longer see a compelling need to restrict their contacts.

The Brazilian government will pay the Serum Institute in India more than twice as much as European Union have earmarked for AstraZeneca vaccines. In a statement at the beginning of January, Fiocruz (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation) confirmed the negotiation and indicated that "the institute will offer the ready vaccines to the market for US$5.25 each".

In recent weeks, an alleged error by the Belgian Minister for the Budget has allowed the prices of different doses of vaccines to be revealed to the European public, with a value of US$2.16 for AstraZeneca doses.

More than 40 countries have imposed a ban on UK arrivals, include Belgium, Canada, India, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and Switzerland. On Monday, European Union member states meet to discuss a co-ordinated response and France is planning to establish a protocol "to ensure movement from the UK can resume.

After a new strain of Covid-19 was detected in the UK, several European countries have imposed a landing ban on British flights. Trains to Belgium have also been banned.

The Netherlands have banned British Flights until January 1. Italy's foreign minister has announced that his government joins the ban on flights. Austria and Germany are planning to impose similar measures, but no immediate details are currently known.

A Belgian politician has apparently accidentally revealed the Covid-19 vaccine prices of those manufacturers with whom the EU Commission has signed contracts:

Consumer Protection State Secretary Eva De Bleeker published a table with prices per dose of the vaccines from six companies on the short message service Twitter on Thursday. The tweet has since then been deleted.

Moderna would be the most expensive at $18 per dose and Astrazenca the cheapest with €1,78 per dose.

A Brussels district has suspended an elementary school teacher who showed a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed while discussing the murder of a French teacher who had used the same image, its spokesman said Friday.

The Belgian teacher, who works in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, showed one of the cartoons previously published by French magazine Charlie Hebdo while explaining Samuel Paty’s death.

Sophie Wilmès has been admitted to intensive care on Wednesday evening following a Coronavirus infection. Her spokeswoman said she is conscious, stable and able to communicate.

Alexander Schallenberg and Sophie Wilmes, foreign ministers of Austria and Belgium, have tested positive for coronavirus after attending a meeting in Luxembourg earlier this week. Both announced their test results, separately, on Saturday.

Wilmes announced her positive test in a post on Twitter: "My COVID test result is positive. Contamination probably occurred within my family circle given the precautions taken outside my home."

A spokeswoman for Austria’s Foreign Ministry stated: "It is suspected that Schallenberg might have been infected at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday."

The Belgian federal government announced Friday that bars and restaurants would have to close for a month, and there will be a curfew from midnight to 5 am. The measures are a response to the surging second wave of Covid-19 and will be in effect from October 19.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said, during a news conference: "The coming weeks will be very difficult, but we must take those measures to avoid the worse."

Belgium has one of the highest per capita Covid-19 fatality rates in the world with 10,283 deaths.

Delphine Boël has won a seven-year legal battle to be recognized as the daughter of the former king of Belgium, Albert II. She will now be called Delphine of Saxen-Coburg-Gotha, princess of Belgium, following a ruling of the Brussels Court of Appeal.

Lewis Hamilton dominated and won the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix in Spa Francorchamps. The British driver has now 89 victories in the category.

Hamilton finished ahead of team-mate Valtteri Botas, with Max Verstappen in third. The victory gave Hamilton a 47 points lead over Verstappen.

The Briton is two victories away from Michael Schumacher's all-time record and set to equal his seven titles.

Lewis Hamilton is on pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix, in Spa-Francorchamps. Hamilton, the current leader of the Formula 1 championship, finished half a second ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen took the third place, Daniel Ricciardo the fourth and Alexander Albon the fifth position.

Lewis Hamilton dedicated the pole position to the actor Chadwick Boseman: "What he accomplished and the legacy he left is so incredible to me. He’s inspired a whole generation of young black men and women and provided them with a true superhero to look up to. Rest in power, my friend."

Phil Hogan, the EU trade commissioner, resigned Wednesday after the Irish government accused him of breaching Covid-19 guidelines during a visit to the country.

On August 19, Hogan attended a golf dinner in County Galway after not complying with quarantine rules when he arrived from Brussels.

Hogan said in a statement, "It was becoming increasingly clear that the controversy concerning my recent visit to Ireland was becoming a distraction from my work as an EU Commissioner and would undermine my work in the key months ahead."

Individuals in Belgium and the Netherlands have been reinfected with the coronavirus, Dutch media have reported. Some experts believe it is a good sign.

A patient in the Netherlands and another in Belgium have been reinfected with the coronavirus, Dutch media reported Tuesday, following reports that scientists in Hong Kong had confirmed the first known reinfection.

Jesse Goodman, a former US Food and Drug Administration chief scientist has stated as a responses to the Hong Kong case that: "if there is a reinfection, it suggests the possibility there was residual immunity that helped protect the patient'' from getting sick again. 

The climate activists Greta Thunberg from Sweden, Anuna de Wever and Adélaïde Charliér from Belgium and Lisa Neubauer from Germany have met the German chancellor Angela Merkel for a 90-minute conversation.

According to Neubauer, they talked about international politics, CO2 pricing and trade agreements. She stated that "it became very clear that we are looking at the issue from different perspectives" and Thunberg said that "we have discussed some demands, but it is complicated".

De Wever stated that during the conversation there main request had been that "what we want are leaders" as "we don't have leaders who are treating this crisis as a crisis".

British Transport Minister Grant Shapps announced Thursday that Andorra, the Bahamas and Belgium were removed from the Covid-19 Travel Corridors list. The decision means passengers arriving from those countries will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

On Twitter, Shapps said: "Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and The Bahamas from our list of #coronavirus Travel Corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN. If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days."

The Belgian city of Antwerp took down a statue of King Leopold II on June 9, days after it was daubed with paint by anti-racism protesters.

Statues of Leopold II were erected all over Belgium and have been at the centre of fierce debate. Calls to take down them have only grown louder as anti-racism protests in the US spread across Europe. At least three Leopold II statues were defaced over the weekend.

According to Johan Vermant, a spokesman for Antwerp's mayor Bart de Wever, the statue is likely to be moved to a museum after its restoration.

The Belgian government announced Saturday the state would hand out ten free rides, with a bike place included, to every Belgian resident for use across the national network between July and December, as part of a package of measures to boost domestic tourism and the economy.

The plan suffered criticism from Sophie Dutordoir, SNCB CEO, that said in a message posted on Twitter: "The way in which a decision was taken yesterday without any consultation raises serious questions,"

Petition calls for removal of the statues of King Leopold II of Belgium. Leopold's troops killed millions in Congo during Belgium's colonial era. The petition was started by a 14-year-old boy and has since garnered traction across Europe. Pictures surfaced on Twitter with Leopold's bust (Gent, Belgium) wrapped in a blood-soaked cloth and the words "I Can't Breathe".

After travelling to Córdoba in Spain and attending a party with 27 people, Prince Joachin of Belgium has been testes positive for Covid-19. By doing this he broke the government rules of spending 14 days in quarantine after arriving in Spain as well as the rule of social gathering not exceeding 15 guests.