A new sharp increase in the number of corona infections in the Netherlands came earlier than expected, a spokesman for the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said in talks with NU.nl on Tuesday. “We thought that the wave would come after the summer holidays. But if it continues like this, it threatens to come a little earlier.”
On Tuesday, RIVM announced that in a week almost a thousand people had been tested positive for the coronavirus. A week earlier, there were more than five hundred.
RIVM calls it a ‘worrying’ development. However, that does not mean that immediate easing must be reversed.
The number of hospital and IC admissions remains well within the set standard. Only when those values increase, should we talk about reintroducing additional measures.
Despite the significant number of infections, the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) is not yet meeting.
Virus previously reduced by measures
“We have been able to reduce the number of infections in recent months, and this was due to the measures we adhered to,” said the spokesperson. “Now you see the opposite happening.”
“You can now see parties that could not go on,” said the spokesman. As a result, local clusters of infections can be seen, such as in Zeeland, Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland.
‘Preventing infections by the vulnerable’
Most infections have been diagnosed in people between the ages of twenty and forty. “In general, they have fewer symptoms and are less likely to be hospitalized,” says Aura Timen, head of the National Coordination Center for Infectious Disease Control at RIVM.
“But we don’t want infections to trickle down into the elderly and frail group through this group,” said Timen. “We don’t want to wait for the number of IC admissions to rise again. If we continue like this, we will also see introductions of the virus in nursing homes, for example.”
“People have to realize that they can be part of the increase in the number of infections and not think: it will probably not be me,” said the spokesman. “So stay at home with complaints. And also for people who have been tested and are waiting for the results, do not go to work and do the shopping themselves. That is very important.”
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