Two new cases of the British coronavirus strain were recorded in Belgium among returning travellers, a researcher from KU Leuven announced on Twitter.
“Let’s avoid a ‘UK scenario’ together,” the researcher said, calling on returning travellers to “follow the rules strictly and voluntarily go into quarantine for at least 7 days.”
Belgium tightened rules for returning travellers at the end of December, which was partially motivated by “a strong indication that a new variant of COVID-19 currently circulating in the United Kingdom is much more contagious.”
The other reason was that the number of infections in Belgium was lower than in other countries at the time.
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Nevertheless, many people in Belgium did travel to a red zone. More than 36,000 travellers returned from red zones in the first weekend of the year, in fact.
Virologist Steven Van Gucht said earlier this week that he was aware of nearly 2,000 travellers having returned from the United Kingdom and that he expected that the British strain would be detected in at least part of the travellers who tested positive.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
