Bars and restaurants across Belgium shut down for a month and a night-time curfew took effect Monday as health authorities warned of a possible 'tsunami' of new virus cases in the hard-hit nation that host the European Union's headquarters.

The new measures aim to limit social interactions to slow down the exponential growth of the pandemic in the nation of 11.5 million people. The new surge of Coronavirus cases has already prompted several hospitals to delay non-essential operations to focus on treating COVID-19 cases.