Coronavirus: Hundreds of thousands of Belgians infected during confinement
The relaxation of the measures, and especially the limited resumption of social contacts, worries experts. During the first weeks of confinement, the virus indeed succeeded in continuing to spread, infecting hundreds of thousands of Belgians, reveals a study carried out by epidemiologists Pierre Van Damme and Heidi Theeten (University of Antwerp).
A first study carried out by the University of Antwerp two weeks ago had already revealed that 3% of Belgians had antibodies, which indicates that the immune system is fighting the virus. The second study, based on approximately 3.397 blood samples taken between April 20 and 26, reveals that this proportion has increased to 6%.
As the daily De Standaard explains, these are samples taken throughout Belgium from patients who come to take a blood test for all kinds of reasons other than the coronavirus from their general practitioner or a specialist outside. of the hospital. According to the researchers, the contaminations took place between March 23 and April 12, in full containment, since it takes about two weeks to measure antibodies in the blood.
The virus continues to circulate
This increase indicates that hundreds of thousands of Belgians have been infected despite strict containment measures. These are mainly young people aged 20 to 30, and people over 80 years old. "Without containment, the spread would have been much greater. But this is a new indication that we have to be careful when we relax the measures, because even with very strict measures, the virus continues to circulate," explains epidemiologist Heidi Theeten at the Standaard.
The National Security Council has in fact decided that from Sunday May 10, each home will be able to accommodate four people, always the same, who will only enter one home. On May 11, non-food businesses will reopen and on May 18, schools will welcome some students. A beginning of deconfinement which risks provoking new foci of infection.
We did not understand the message
Microbiologist at the University of Antwerp, Herman Goossens is worried about this relaxation. "When I hear people interpret the four-person rule in all kinds of creative ways, it's clear that we haven't really got the message," he told the daily De Morgen. "It reminds me of the reactions in March when we banned events with more than 1 spectators. Some have decided to organize events for 000 people."
Despite this increase in people with antibodies, the Belgian population is still very far from collective immunity. In addition, researchers do not yet know how long these antibodies protect against a new infection, or how much antibody it takes in the blood to be well protected against the new coronavirus.
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