Outbreak of ‘British variant’ of coronavirus in Belgium and St Moritz

Belgian schools are open but with strict social distancing measures in place. 

Credit: AFP

An outbreak of the “British variant” of Covid-19 in Belgium has forced two schools to close and put almost two thousand people into quarantine, while ski schools were closed in a Swiss ski resort. 

Two hotels in the exclusive Swiss Alpine resort of St Moritz were quarantined and ski schools closed to try to curb an outbreak of the highly infectious new coronavirus variant.

Everyone  in the town of 5,200 has been ordered to wear masks and mass testing of residents will take place on Tuesday. Schools and daycare venues are closed.

"About a dozen cases are currently known in two hotels. To protect the health of the population and guests, the health department has quarantined the two hotels and ordered corona tests for their employees and guests," local authorities said.

Coronavirus Switzerland Spotlight Chart — cases default

It declined to name the hotels and said it assumed foreigners were among the guests but it did not give their nationalities. 

Two schools in the province of Antwerp and another in Aalst reported the infections of the mutant virus, which is highly contagious. 

Two cases were reported at a primary school in Edegem and one at a secondary school in Kontich, which both closed. Staff and pupils in Kontich must self-isolate for ten days, the Brussels Times website reported. 

“We realise that this measure has far-reaching consequences. About 1,450 students, 250 staff members and all their family members must go into quarantine,” said Kontich mayor Bart Seldeslachts. 

A student in a special needs school in Aalst was infected but the school will remain open. People coming into contact with the student have been told to go into quarantine. 

Coronavirus Belgium Spotlight Chart — Cases default

The new infections follow an outbreak of the B-117 variant in the West Flanders town of Houthulst at the weekend. At least 128 people were infected in that outbreak which centred on a care home. Three people died. 

Marc Van Ranst, a prominent virologist, said the British variant was probably already all over Belgium. 

He said, “If it ends up in Houthulst, we shouldn’t be naive and think that the British variant isn’t all over the country.”

"Our country is too small to keep those variants in one place."

Dutch health experts have told the government of the Netherlands to take measures to reduce the risk of the British variant, which they said was now responsible for about 10 percent of all infections in the country. 

Without action soon that could rise to 50 percent by February, the Outbreak Management Team said. About 200 cases of the B-117 variant have been reported in the Netherlands.