One in five primary care providers in Belgium has tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, Medi-Sphère reports on Thursday based on a recent study.
The study was carried out by the universities of Liège and Antwerp, together with the College of General Medicine and Domus Medica. It involved over 3,000 participants, all front-line workers, who were to administer serological (blood-based) rapid tests.
In total, 90% of those workers recorded their results in an online questionnaire between 24 December and 8 January. Around 14.3% showed a prevalence of coronavirus antibodies.
Adding those who reported having tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic but tested negative during the rapid tests bring the total to 20%.
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More than half (55%) identified a patient as the source of their infection, followed by a family member (25%) or a colleague (14%), while the remaining 6% did not know how they caught the virus.
The care providers who have been infected are among 670,249 confirmed cases in Belgium since the start of the pandemic.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
