Belgium detected a positive case of the South African variant

The health authorities of Belgium detected on November 22 a case of the new South African variant of covid-19, reported on Friday the Minister of Public Health, Frank Vandenbroucke, who asked that “do not panic”. The infected patient is an unvaccinated young adult woman who developed symptoms eleven days after traveling to Egypt via Turkey and who claims to have had no contact with people from southern Africa, the National Laboratory of Referencia.La woman reported, apparently, has not had high-risk contacts outside her home and no member of her family developed symptoms so far. added the National Reference Laboratory, which is conducting extensive research. At the same press conference at which Vandenbroucke reported on this case, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said his government plans to introduce new restrictions on inbound travel from southern Africa. We are activating a procedure in this regard,” De Croo said briefly.This will mean a mandatory quarantine of 10 days for those returning from that region and residing in Belgium, and an entry “ban” for non-residents, without specifying which countries will be affected, he explained. South Africa confirmed on Thursday the detection of a new variant of the coronavirus, identified as B.1.1.529, which has multiple mutations and has aroused “concern” among specialists, although its impact has yet to be studied. In total, so far, cases of this variant have been confirmed in South Africa, in Hong Kong (in a traveler from the African nation) and in neighboring Botswana, as well as in Israel.La B.1.1.529 has more than thirty mutations and some of them are, according to South African scientists, a cause for concern for their possible impact on transmissibility and for their potential ability to evade immunity or prior protection.

Original source in Spanish