Thursday December 31, 2020
Corona outbreak in old people’s home
26 residents die after visiting Santa Claus
A man dresses up as Santa Claus and visits an old people’s home in Belgium. Then 26 residents die from Corona, over 100 people are infected. One thing is certain: the man was infected and knew nothing about it. Whether the mass outbreak was actually due to him remains unclear.
After a visit by St. Nicholas, 26 residents of a retirement home in Belgium died of Covid-19. Santa Claus in disguise was a carrier of the corona virus, but knew nothing of his infection. The Flemish health authorities announced. The man only tested positive later. 169 people are currently housed in the old people’s home in the province of Antwerp, as an employee of the AFP news agency said. 85 residents and 40 employees were infected with the corona virus.
The costumed Santa Claus paid the residents a visit on December 5, and the corona outbreak was noticed a few days later. The virologist Marc Van Ranst indicated that the majority of those infected in the nursing home were infected “from the same source”. The spokesman for the Flemish health authority, Joris Moonens, stressed, however, that there is “no certainty” that St. Nicholas infected the residents.
The old people’s and nursing homes in Belgium are particularly badly affected by the corona crisis: 11,066 home residents have died with the corona virus since the pandemic began. That corresponds to around 57 percent of all deaths in the country. In November, the human rights organization Amnesty International accused the Belgian government of “neglecting” old people’s homes during the pandemic.