Commotion in Belgium: A transmitter disguised as “Santa Claus” infected 75 people with a coronavirus in a nursing home! | WORLD

The news that a volunteer disguised as “Santa Claus” infected 75 inmates and staff of a nursing home with the coronavirus shocked the Belgian public!

Last week’s visit to Sinterklaas – as Santa Claus is called in Belgium – and his assistants was enthusiastically received by inmates at the Hemelrijck nursing home in Mol, near Antwerp. But the volunteer is now accused of transmitting the coronavirus to 61 inmates and 14 other staff members.

Three days after his visit to the city nursing home in northern Belgium, accused by Amnesty International of leaving nursing homes, “Santa Claus” fell ill and was diagnosed with a coronavirus, forcing all authorities sanitary to undergo. interns and staff in diagnostic tests. “It was a dark day for the nursing home.” It is very difficult psychologically both for the man who played Santa Claus, as well as for those who organized his visit and for the staff, “said the mayor of the city. Wim Cayers.

Photos of the event, which were published in local media, show, however, that not all food masks were used and that “Santa Claus” and his assistants did not keep the necessary distance from the elderly. The mayor accused the nursing home officials of being irresponsible, who are now trying with the help of the authorities, the Red Cross and the governor of Antwerp to control the outbreak. However, one of Belgium’s leading infectious disease specialists, Mark Van Ranst from KU Leuven University, doubts that a volunteer, even a coronavirus transmitter, can infect so many people, believing that the most likely cause is poor ventilation. However, he described the visit of “Santa Claus” as mediator of the pandemic as a “stupid idea”. Belgium, which will begin vaccinations on January 5, has the highest death rate per million inhabitants on the planet since Covid-19, with 2,762 new cases last Saturday and another 4,978 on Sunday.