At least 26 residents of a Belgian retirement home have died since a visit by a volunteer dressed as Santa who has since tested positive for COVID-19. A Flemish health official told AFP on Thursday that it is not yet certain that it was the visitor who brought the corona virus home to Hemelrijck in Mol on December 5.
Only 26 residents have died since the visit, and 85 more have tested positive for the coronavirus, along with 40 staff.
The outbreak was discovered a few days after the visit, and prominent virologist Marc Van Ranst reported on Twitter that most of the infections came from the same source.
The Santa Claus figure with a white beard and red robe, the equivalent of the English-speaking Santa Claus, brings gifts to Belgians every December 6.
Photo by ERIC LALMAND / BELGA / AFP via Getty Images
However, this year’s festivities were clouded by the coronavirus pandemic, which hit Belgium particularly hard, especially in its retirement homes.
No investigation has been initiated without a formal complaint, said regional health spokesman Joris Moonens, and there is no suggestion that the volunteer knew he was infected.
But a crisis manager has been appointed for Hemelrijck – where 169 people lived before the COVID outbreak – to help staff, residents and family members cope with “this difficult period”.
Belgium has one of the highest per capita mortality rates from the coronavirus in the world and more than half of the dead – 11,066 people – were residents of a retirement home.