A second infection with the omikron variant has been identified in Belgium. The person in question has not traveled recently and cannot be linked to the first infection in our country.
It was microbiologist Emmanuel Andre who reported the second infection on Twitter. The two patients are unrelated. More cases could be confirmed in the coming hours, as several samples are still under investigation.
Virologist Marc van Ranst also confirmed the second round of OMI in our country. “The National Reference Laboratory is currently investigating other suspicious samples.”
The sample came from French-speaking Belgium. He is a man with mild symptoms who has been vaccinated and has no history of travel to South Africa or other places. “That means this has been going under the radar in Europe for quite some time, maybe not very long,” Van Ranst told Radio 1. Further investigation is underway as to where and how the person became infected.
On November 26, the first infection appeared. Then it concerns a young woman who traveled to Egypt via Turkey and developed mild flu symptoms 11 days after her return to Belgium.
The variant was created in the meantime in several European countries, in addition to Belgium also in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain and Sweden. The counter stands at 59 recorded infections Wednesday afternoon. This was stated by the European Union health authority ECDC in an update on Wednesday.
According to the authority, 16 cases have been recorded in the Netherlands, fourteen in Portugal, and nine in Germany. In addition, infections have been reported in Italy and Denmark (4 at a time), three in Sweden and Austria, two in Spain, one in the Czech Republic and one on the French island of Reunion.
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