A fed-up cafe owner in Belgium is sleeping in her premises with little food, in protest at the months-long shutdown of her sector to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“To remain like this, without working, losing everything — every day to see you're losing a little bit more — it's hard,” Christelle Carion told AFP as she sat on the edge of her bed, set up beside the bar.

The 48-year-old has been holed up in the closed Amon Nos Autes cafe in the eastern village of Pepinster since Tuesday, to draw attention to the ordeal that she and other owners in Belgium's bar and restaurant sector are going through.

They have been ordered shut since October 19 to counter the second coronavirus wave sweeping Europe, after having been closed for three months for the first wave in early 2020.ons.