5 years after the first case detected in Belgium, return to the Pandemic of Covid

5 years after the first case detected in Belgium, return to the Pandemic of Covid


5 years ago, to the day, the first positive case of COVVID was detected at the military hospital among the Belgians returned from China. Retrospective.

“He will stay in quarantine for 14 days”confided Patrick Soentjens, responsible for infectious diseases. But it is too late, the virus has already reached Belgium and will no longer leave it. On March 1, a second case was detected. “We did our best to keep the virus outside, but we knew we were going to have cases”regretted Maggie de Block (Open VLD), Federal Minister of Health (2014-2020).

If the cases increase each day, the first death occurs ten days later: a 90 -year -old lady, hospitalized in Uccle. It is not the only one, since two other deaths will be announced that day. Present at this press conference, Sciensano’s virologist Steven Van Gucht did not imagine the scope of the crisis that was going to follow. “I expected a new pandemic, it happens every 10 to 30 years, but such a size it surprised me, the duration too”he says.

If he evaluated the duration around a year and a half, the pandemic lasted more than two years, and this, despite the start of the vaccination campaign. Little by little, the virus is evolving, and we are heading towards new variants: delta, omicron …

In total, Belgium will experience 7 waves between March 2020 and September 2022. If today the virus is little present, cases remain detected.

■ Report ofArnaud Bruckner and Béatrice Broutout



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