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Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in young children attending day-care centres in Belgium, May 2020 to February 2022
- Liesbet Van Heirstraeten1 , Esra Ekinci2 , Mathias Smet1 , Matilda Berkell1 , Laura Willen2 , Jasmine Coppens3 , An Spiessens3 , Basil Britto Xavier1 , Christine Lammens1 , Jan Verhaegen4 , Pierre Van Damme2 , Herman Goossens1,3 , Philippe Beutels5 , Veerle Matheeussen1,3 , Stefanie Desmet4 , Heidi Theeten2 , Surbhi Malhotra-Kumar1
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1 Laboratory of Medical Microbiology, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium 2 Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium 3 Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, Antwerp University Hospital, Edegem, Belgium 4 Reference Centre for Pneumococci, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium 5 Centre for Health Economics Research and Modelling Infectious Diseases, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, BelgiumSurbhi Malhotra-KumarSurbhi.Malhotra uantwerpen.be
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Citation style for this article: Van Heirstraeten Liesbet, Ekinci Esra, Smet Mathias, Berkell Matilda, Willen Laura, Coppens Jasmine, Spiessens An, Xavier Basil Britto, Lammens Christine, Verhaegen Jan, Van Damme Pierre, Goossens Herman, Beutels Philippe, Matheeussen Veerle, Desmet Stefanie, Theeten Heidi, Malhotra-Kumar Surbhi. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in young children attending day-care centres in Belgium, May 2020 to February 2022. Euro Surveill. 2022;27(21):pii=2200380. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.21.2200380 Received: 23 May 2022; Accepted: 25 May 2022
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Abstract
Presence of SARS-CoV-2 was monitored in nasopharyngeal samples from young children aged 6−30 months attending day-care centres (DCCs) in Belgium from May 2020−February 2022. SARS-CoV-2 carriage among DCC children was only detected from November 2021, after emergence of Delta and Omicron variants, in 9 of the 42 DCCs screened. In only one DCC, two children tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at the same sampling time point, suggesting limited transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Belgian DCCs among young children during the studied period.
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