COVID-19-positive doctors asked to keep working in Belgium

Health workers in some hospitals in Liege, Belgium's third largest city and a coronavirus hotspot, have been asked to continue working even if they test positive for the virus as long as they are not showing any symptoms of the disease. /Getty Images

Health workers in some hospitals in Liege, Belgium's third largest city and a coronavirus hotspot, have been asked to continue working even if they test positive for the virus as long as they are not showing any symptoms of the disease.

Top health official have warned that Belgium could run out of intensive care beds in as little as two weeks and some hospitals are facing staff shortages.

The country of 11.5 million people has reported on average more than 13,000 cases a day in the past week, according to the national public health institute Sciensano.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Belgium is the second worst in Europe in terms of new cases per capita, after only the Czech Republic.

Yves Van Laethem, Belgium's spokesperson for the fight against the coronavirus, warned that unless Belgians change their behavior, intensive care units will reach their capacity of 2,000 patients in 15 days.

Liege, the largest city in the French-speaking Wallonia region, has the highest incidence rate in Belgium. The communications director of Liege University Hospital, Louis Maraite, told CNN on Tuesday that because of staff shortages, the hospital had "no choice" but to make doctors and nurses who tested positive but have no symptoms come to work.

"This is not a problem as they are working in coronavirus units with patients who also tested positive," he added. Maraite said that health workers with Covid-19 accounted for 5% to 10% of the total hospital workforce.

Health workers who show symptoms, such as fever, have been asked not to come to work, and Maraite said the hospital could not force asymptomatic health workers to show up.

(With input from agencies)