The number of patients in intensive care units of Dutch hospitals has increased by 24 to 1,409. That says chairman Ernst Kuipers of the National Network Acute Care (LNAZ) Monday. According to Kuipers, the figures give “cause for optimism”, although he emphasizes the importance of everyone adhering to the measures in the near future.
The increase in the number of IC patients has been decreasing for a few days in a row. On Friday, the number of patients in intensive care increased by more than 50, on Saturday it was 36 and on Sunday it further decreased to 25.
According to Diederik Gommers, chairman of the Dutch Association for Intensive Care (NVIC), the slight increase does not mean any air for the staff on the ICs.
“We are still rising and the peak is now predicted at the end of April. We will be approaching the nineteen hundred patients by the end of the month. We want to stay below that,” said Gommers. “We are glad it went this way, but we all need to make sure we stay under nineteen hundred.”
Normally, there are 1,150 places available in the Dutch intensive care departments, but this has now been expanded to 2,400.
More than five hundred of those beds are intended for people who are not infected with the corona virus.
“This is going to take a while”
Kuipers says that the figures give “reason for optimism”, but emphasizes that the fairly positive picture does not mean that the measures can be relaxed. “We will need those measures for a longer period of time and cannot be relaxed in the next week or two weeks.”
“It is wise to think about how you can relax measures in the long term and help the economy and society without having to peak later. Because then you will still get what we are trying to prevent with all our efforts. But this will take a while. “
According to the director of Erasmus MC, it would eventually be possible to look “very gradually” at “specific groups that can move more freely”. Kuipers mentions school students as an example.
“But we could also test more broadly and search for people who have already had it. On the basis of that data you can determine: when has sufficient immunity been built up in the population?”
Follow the latest developments around the virus in us live blog.
The coronavirus in short
- The coronavirus mainly spreads from person to person via sneezing and cough drops. The chance of becoming infected through surfaces such as door handles is small. This chance decreases if you wash your hands often.
- You can considerably reduce the chance of spreading by keeping at least 1.5 meters away from others.
- The corona measures have resulted in an infected person infecting less than one other person on average. Previously, this so-called reproduction number was between two and three.
- The vast majority of patients have mild (flu-like) complaints.
- Almost all deaths involve the elderly or other vulnerable persons, such as heart, lung or diabetes patients. If everyone complies with the measures, this reduces their risks.
- Read here what precautions you should take.
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