”We wanted something thicker, a real stool sample. While there it was mostly water with some dirt, in which we thought we would find nothing”, explains Elke Wollants, laboratory manager at the Rega Institute. Indeed, the sample that was analyzed this Saturday was less substantial than expected.
This positive result shows that some people on this flight have been infected with the coronavirus. In addition, tests for RSV and influenza were negative, while these two diseases are currently experiencing a wave of epidemics.
The second step of this research will be to determine which variant is involved, which will be all the more difficult with the absence of feces: “We’ll see if anything pops up. Anything that is not Omicron is worrying, because it would be new here”adds Elke Wollants.