A ‘social abstinence’ lasting a week. Working from home as a temporary rule. And a ban on major events. The Security regions in Brabant announced this.
Not too strict?
The question is whether authorities are taking the right action with these crisis measures. Should the government not have done anything at an earlier stage to combat the corona virus? Are the current measures too soft or too strict? And why does only Brabant have to deal with this? Spoiler alert: experts say that the measures are far-reaching and therefore perhaps surprising, but proportionate.
In any case, the Security Regions did not go over the night with the measures. Mayor Jorritsma of Eindhoven said he made ‘the most difficult decision’ in his administrative career.
Brabant-wide, the presidents of the Security regions put a line through all paid football matches and many concerts. In this way, administrators want to keep ‘vital organizations’ such as healthcare corona-resistant, although there was ‘a diabolical dilemma’. On the one hand, people do not want to disrupt daily life in Brabant. On the other hand, the government feels compelled to prevent the rapid spread of the virus in Brabant. But why precisely these measures? First some facts.
Carnival
On February 28, a resident of Loon op Zand was the first in the Netherlands to test positive. Infections then follow each other in rapid succession. After eleven days the counter in the Netherlands stands at 382, of which 157 infections in Brabant.
The cause of the increase is two-fold, according to doctor-microbiologist Jean-Luc Murk of the Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital in Tilburg. On the one hand, a large number of Dutch people celebrating holidays in Northern Italy took the virus home.
On the other hand, carnival seems to have played a major role in the multiplication of the number of cases of infection. Murk is almost certain of that. “Others had the virus among the members then, but were not aware of it. We suspect that the first Dutchman already had the virus among the members mid-February. He passed it on unnoticed.”
Unique
According to Murk, that would be an explanation why there are relatively many corona patients in this province, whose source of infection is unknown. According to the RIVM, about half of all Brabant infections are involved. According to RIVM CEO Jaap van Dissel, that is a ‘unique’ situation. And a unique situation requires unique measures.
The three mayors realized this all too well. In the long term, this situation is a danger for the disruption of ‘vital’ services of Dutch society. Healthcare for example. For the vast majority of people, the virus is not life-threatening. For vulnerable people, such as the elderly or the sick, the virus is more dangerous. They have the greatest chance of ending up in the hospital.
Danger
And that’s where, according to Van de Sande, former head of infectious disease control at GGD Hart voor Brabant, there is a danger: intensive cares cannot become overcrowded. If they are full and even flooded, a wave of deaths is possible. Experts mention Italy as a specter. Hospitals can no longer cope with the flow of corona cases, resulting in high mortality rates. The number of corona deaths rose within a day from 463 to 631.
“We really want to prevent that here,” Murk emphasizes, to add quickly: “The situation here is very different from there.” Van de Sande agrees. “The care in the Netherlands is built up in stages. Potential corona patients first report to general practitioners. GGDs are well spread across the country and conduct contact examinations in the event of positive tests. Only when the need is really there, they end up in the hospital. “
Brakes
To keep the situation that way, banning large events is in place, says Murk. “You have to see it this way: if you take extreme measures very quickly, people will think: where does this make sense? But if the government does not do anything for a long time, like in Italy, the situation becomes unmanageable. (Tuesday) immediately took over Rutte’s advice. More people were working at home, we saw the traffic jams. And hardly anyone can shake hands. That’s good. People need to know: only together can we prevent further spread. ”
According to Van de Sande, it is all about the balance: “We are not locking the entire country. At the same time, we are trying to curb rapid growth in infections. This is to prevent the situation from becoming untenable and to keep it reasonably under control. “
Watch the corona measures announced by the Security Regions in the video below:
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