The Covid-19 mutation, which circulates in the United Kingdom, but has also been detected in South Africa and Italy, is probably already in Belgium. Belgian health authorities confirmed Tuesday, December 22 that they had detected four cases of contamination with the new variant of the coronavirus “at the beginning of December”. And it is possible that these four cases are not the only ones. Yves Van Laethem, interfederal spokesperson for the fight against the coronavirus in Belgium, told Agence France-Presse: “It’s not much, but it is not impossible that there are more. ”
“Like many countries, we do not track as many strains as the English, who do a huge job at this level”, explained this doctor specializing in infectious diseases. According to him, England carries out 10 to 20 times more “typing” of virus strains than Belgium.
“Isn’t the enemy already among us?” “
This expert wonders about the usefulness of closing borders with the United Kingdom, decided by most European countries. “Isn’t the enemy already among us?” I don’t know, but it’s not impossible, ”says Yves Van Laethem. “This closure was perhaps already too late since we started to find cases of this English strain in September,” he continued.
The four cases identified in Belgium are of Belgian nationality. A spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Health clarified that among them, three had been detected in East Flanders (north-east) and another in West Flanders (north-west).
In the country, three laboratories are carrying out in-depth analyzes of the strain of the virus. Since early December, no other cases have been reported.
The Ministry of Health has asked experts to make proposals on the advisability of carrying out a greater number of this type of analysis, this spokesperson told Agence France Presse.
Nine cases detected in Denmark
The emergence in the United Kingdom of a new variant of the coronavirus, suspected of being more contagious than others, is causing concern. The European branch of the World Health Organization (WHO) called on Sunday to strengthen controls to better detect possible cases of the new variant.
According to the WHO, similar forms have been detected in very low numbers in Australia (one case), Denmark (9), the Netherlands (1) or South Africa. Italy also announced a first case detected on Sunday.
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