OMT also wants corona tests for toddlers, De Jonge is waiting | Inland

The OMT met on Friday to discuss the fight against the virus. A new advisory report discusses, among other things, the new Omikron variant of the virus. There is not much to say about it now. The same applies to the effectiveness of the measures that came into effect last week. The OMT wants to see for another week whether there is actually a decrease in infections and hospital admissions. Until then, no additional measures are advised.

The minister’s advisers expect that the measures that came into effect last week, including a closure of shops and catering establishments at 5 p.m., should be reflected in the figures from this week. In hospitals, the effect will only become visible later because it takes a while before people become seriously ill. Models believe that a peak in intensive care units will be reached within “a few weeks”, with 650 to 800 corona patients.

The OMT had advised the cabinet to consider whether the Christmas holidays could be extended by a week to reduce the number of infections at school. The risk is that the children will then be taken to childcare because their parents simply have to work, writes De Jonge. Then the measure would not help.

‘Huge numbers’

With regard to the testing of primary school pupils from group 1 onwards, the minister sees mainly practical problems. “It involves huge numbers of tests, which have to be ordered and for which things have to be organized logistically.” For that reason, he thinks it cannot be arranged in the short term.

On 14 December, the cabinet will once again review all measures. It must then be clear to what extent the measures that have now been taken have helped, and the measures for schools will also be reviewed. De Jonge does not rule out the possibility that tests will become available for children from group 1 at a later stage.

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