Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes on Tuesday recommended that indoor events with over 1,000 attendees should be canceled, to mitigate the risk of coronavirus spreading, HLNreported.
"It is now time to take measures to prevent the virus from spreading further through social contacts," Wilmes said during a press conference at the National Security Council.
"We know that these are not pleasant measures, but we do this now because the scientists are telling us that it is now time to take them, to prevent an exponential increase in the number of new infections."
The recommendation does not apply to open air meetings, just indoor events during the entire month of March.
Business should continue as normal, however, employers should give employees additional flexibility to work from home in order to decrease the amount of people at work and using public transportation at the same time, Wilmes said.
On Monday, Diversified Communications, organizers of the Seafood Expo Global, announced it was evaluating whether to postpone the event scheduled for Brussels in late April. The company said it will make its decision on Tuesday. Last week, the company postponed its Boston seafood show, which was scheduled to begin this week in Boston.
Norwegian seafood association Sjomat Norge on Tuesday announced it would be cancelling its annual conference in Bodo, Norway, later this month.