Belgium: 7 fully vaccinated care home residents die after contracting B.1.621 Mu variant first found in Colombia

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During the past two weeks, 7 residents of a care home near Zaventem in Belgium have died after having contracted the B.1.621 variant of coronavirus first identified in Colombia, South America. All those that have died at the care home had been fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

On 16th July, two coronavirus infections were confirmed at the Ter Burg care home. As soon as the first infections were confirmed those in charge at the home put the afflicted section under quarantine. A total of 20 residents tested positive. As measures had been taken the outbreak was contained in the section of the home where it had started.

Nevertheless, 7 of the 28 residents with advanced dementia have passed away. Some of these were in poor physical health to start with. One of them was terminally and another was being given palliative care. However, some of those that died were in relatively good physical health.

VRT.be report

Interestingly, the UK PHE have just released a threat assessment for B.1.621, reprinted below, and there are some recent posts from their Twitter account.

 

UK PHE threat assessment for B.1.621

 

 

In a possibly related development, Belgium has decided to lift its ban on travel from countries with high levels of coronavirus infections

 

Preprint: Characterization of the emerging B.1.621 variant of interest of SARS-CoV-2

** This post was originally published on August 7, 2021 **