Belgian health officials confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday (22nd) that Belgium had seen a new strain of the novel coronavirus in the United Kingdom earlier this month, and authorities found four related cases.
According to AFP, the spokesman for Belgian Minister of Health Eckmans said that the four cases occurred in the northern Flemish region bordering the Netherlands.
“This is a conservative figure, and there may be other infections that have not been detected,” said Van Latham, an infectious disease specialist at the center of the coronavirus crisis in Belgium. Belgium’s detection rate for new coronavirus strains is much lower than that of Britain.
After the emergence of a new strain of the coronavirus that spreads faster in Britain, dozens of countries around the world, including Belgium, announced the closure of their borders to the United Kingdom.
But Van Latham warned that the UK began to discover new cases of the novel coronavirus in September, and it may be too late to close the border.
