Woman infected with two strains of COVID-19 dies in Belgium

A woman has died in Belgium after contracting both the "British" and "South African" versions of the CORONAVIRUS at the same time, BLOOMBERG reports.

According to the publication, a 90-year-old woman was admitted to a hospital in the Belgian city of Aalst back in March. On the day of her hospitalization, she was diagnosed with the alpha variant of covid-19 ("British"), the woman's condition quickly deteriorated, and she died five days later.

Doctors determined that the woman was a carrier of both the alpha strain and the beta strain (the South African variant). it is noted that both of these variants were circulating in Belgium at the time, so it is likely that the woman contracted different variants of the virus from two different people.

On June 1, the World HEALTH Organization announced that variants of the coronavirus will be denoted by the letters of the Greek alphabet, so as not to discriminate against the countries where these strains were first discovered. “A group of experts convened by WHO recommended the use of labeling using the letters of the Greek alphabet, i.e. Alpha, Beta, Gamma,” the report said.

The UK authorities were the first to report the discovery of a new, more contagious strain of coronavirus in mid-December. The appearance of another strain of COVID-19 was reported in March 2021 by the Indian authorities. Also, new variants of the virus have been identified in Brazil, South Africa, and Vietnam. In RUSSIA, its own strain was discovered in early 2021. He received the designation AT.1 and is now on the watch list.