It appears quite likely that Belgium's death figures are over-inflated because they count all deaths in care homes as virus-related - and also they have far more elderly people residing in care homes than is the case in other European countries.
However, it has to be acknowledged that on the News tonight there was footage of many doctors and nurses turning their backs on their PM's car, partly because she has apparently authorised untrained people to be recruited to work as nurses. It may well be that the Belgian PM thought, to be as honest as possible, it was better to over estimate, rather than under estimate the danger of the virus and her strategy has backfired. I think it might also be relevant that Belgium was without a functioning government for 589 days and this must surely have affected short and long term decision making.
I expect several leaders will be heavily criticised by their populations because few have dealt with the situation particularly well. I do think, though, that our PM and his team have really outshone the rest in their propensity for ineffectiveness, indecisiveness, lack of urgency (despite the warnings), lack of clarity - and dishonesty. As an island surrounded by the sea and, unlike the rest of Europe, with no open land borders we were in a far better position to deal with the virus but we squandered that advantage in so many ways - including allowing mass gatherings like the Cheltenham Festival to continue and letting thousands of people flying in from abroad leave the airport without even their temperature being taken and destination address being recorded, or steps taken to to ensure they self-isolated for 14 days. Just as importantly, we had far more notice of the virus than other countries and had more time to put at least some preparations in hand.
The Washington Post reported:
"By the Economist’s analysis, Britain was the worst-hit of the countries it examined, as measured by excess deaths compared to overall population. Spain was second; with Belgium a close third. The newsweekly did not calculate excess death figures for the United States, but estimated that New York City’s excess death rate was far ahead that of Britain. Dense cities have often been hit especially hard."