Seven residents of a nursing home in Belgium have died after becoming infected with the Kappa variant of the coronavirus first discovered in Colombia despite being fully vaccinated, the virology team that conducted the tests said on Friday.
According to Reuters, the virology team said residents were infected with B.1.621 of COVID-19 that started in Colombia and has been detected in recent weeks in the United States, but cases in Europe have been rare.
The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention has registered the B1.621 lineage as part of the Kappa variant of the coronavirus, but not as a variant per se.
The seven people who died at the nursing home in the Belgian city of Zaventem, near Brussels, were all in their 80s or 90s, and some of them were already in poor physical condition, said Marc Van Ranst, a virologist at the University of Leuven who performed tests on the virus found in the nursing home.
“It’s disturbing“, Said Van Ranst, commenting on the fact that residents died despite being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
So far, scientists do not know if the B.1.621 lineage is more contagious than the coronavirus lineage or other variants, he said. In Belgium, B.1.621 currently accounts for less than 1% of known COVID-19 cases, he said, compared to 2% of cases in the United States and more than that in Florida.