Authorities in Belgium say a 27-year-old elderly man died in a coronavirus outbreak at a retirement home from a super spreading st. Nick party last month, but they hope the situation is now under control.
The Hemelrijck House in the town of Mol in the north of Belgium arranged a visit on December 4 by a group playing the beloved saint who usually distributes merriment and gifts. But the city and families of some of the deceased complained that the nursing home should never have organized the party when restrictive measures were taken over events across the country to curb the pandemic.
The municipality of Mol said the event was not coordinated with the crisis cell, and if they had heard about it beforehand, they would have stopped it.
The municipality said a 27th person had died.
At the Hemelrijck nursing home, no one was available for comment Friday. At the last count, the house had 88 infections among residents and 42 among staff.
Lily Lenaerts, whose sister Angele, 85, died first after the outbreak, is upset about how the nursing home treats family members.
Photo by ERIC LALMAND / BELGA / AFP via Getty Images
“I still have not received a condolence card (from the old age home), and I have been visiting it for four years,” she told Het Laatste Nieuws.
Saint Nicholas is the traditional day of December 6 to give gifts and is much more important to children in Belgium than Santa Claus on December 25, which is mainly a family gathering.
Initially, it was thought that one of the actors of the St. Nick group was the source of the outbreak, but subsequent research could not be entirely conclusive.
The leading Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst said that “it cannot be said with 100% certainty that he introduced it in the care home.” He added “the man was a volunteer in the care home and could theoretically have been infected by a resident or a staff member.”
The city said the outbreak is finally stabilizing.
“The health status of the residents has shown a clear improvement,” the city said in a statement.
Belgium, a country of 11.5 million, has been hit hard by the pandemic with 19,528 confirmed virus deaths so far, many of them in nursing homes.