This article will be updated throughout the day.
The main points:
- Suriname in totale lockdown, code black in hospitals because of the bad corona situation
10.42 – First false vaccination certificates appear in Germany
The first false vaccination certificates have surfaced in Germany, according to the police. According to a spokesperson for the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), there are not that many yet, but the demand will increase and so will the supply. According to the BKA, this is because people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 are less affected by the restrictions imposed to fight the virus.
The first reports of false vaccination documents came from Bavaria. The Bayerischer Rundfunk reports that the counterfeits can be obtained without any problems. The police in Bavaria is still not out of the case where an unknown person in front of a supermarket in Memmingen gave false vaccination certificates to passers-by without demanding anything in return.
9.34 – Pregnant women not vaccinated with priority
Pregnant women do not receive a priority shot against the corona virus. The cabinet has considered this and has asked the RIVM for advice on this. But care minister Hugo de Jonge wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives that such an early invitation has little effect on the speed with which this group is vaccinated.
An important consideration is also that pregnant women who are at risk of a “serious course of Covid-19” with possible consequences for the child, already fall into the group of people with a medical indication. They then have a condition that makes them vulnerable to Covid-19. This group is vaccinated with priority, says De Jonge.
In addition, people in their twenties “already expected within a few weeks” will receive an invitation for a jab. “Further prioritization is therefore not necessary due to the high rate of vaccination,” De Jonge reports. “Because vaccination is also important for pregnant women, extensive and targeted communication with this target group has been and continues to be made.”
6.54 – Vietnam discovers hybrid Indian and British coronavirus mutation
A hybrid variant of coronavirus mutations that were first detected in India and the United Kingdom has been found in Vietnam, Vietnam’s Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long announced on Saturday. The news was first reported by the Vietnamese newspaper VnExpress.
The mutated variants are said to be significantly more contagious and spread easily through the air. The so-called British variant or B.1.1.7 was first identified in October and in the following months caused an explosive growth in the infection figures in Western Europe, among others.
The mutation first spotted in India, B.1.617, has infected millions of people in recent months. In India, where the government relaxed restrictions too early, experts say, more than 400,000 new infections have been identified, with some daily deaths exceeding 4,000.
Vietnam has seen a steady increase in the daily number of confirmed corona infections since this month. In the last week of April, the daily average did not exceed 10 new infections. This week, the average number of new infections per day is already above 200.
Vietnam has so far been largely spared by the corona pandemic, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. So far, almost 6400 infections have been identified and at least 47 people have died from the effects of Covid-19.
6.45 – CBS receives data from test streets of the GGD for research
Information from the corona test streets of the GGDs is made available to the CBS statistics agency. This will carry out statistical analyzes at the request of the Ministry of Health. In this way, the ministry wants to “gain more insight into the fight against the pandemic and the consequences for specific groups within society.” The government promises that people’s privacy will be guaranteed.
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For the analyses, Statistics Netherlands will use data on, among other things, income, education level, employment position and living situation. “This makes it clear which groups exactly tested positive, negative or not. These analyzes may help to identify more quickly which groups are more or less tested, which professions are at higher risk or what, for example, the influence of living or working conditions is on being tested positively,” the ministry said.
The department expects that this can contribute to a more targeted fight against the virus and possibly help in future epidemics. The GGDs, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) can also benefit from this. The first analysis results are expected at the end of June. The statistics are always made public.
According to the ministry, privacy is regulated through the so-called CBS Act. For example, ‘the directly identifying personal characteristics’ are removed from Statistics Netherlands after the data has been received. Personal characteristics are also encrypted and “a careful check is made to ensure that results cannot be traced back to individuals.”
The ministry is examining whether it is sensible and legally possible to also make other data, such as vaccination data, available to Statistics Netherlands for statistical research.
06.03 – ‘Van Lienden tried to get an extra order through Pieter Omtzigt’
Sywert van Lienden has tried through Pieter Omtzigt to get an extra mega order for mouth caps. The CDA member of parliament passed on his party colleague’s offer to Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Van Lienden did not mention that he already had commercial interests through his own company at the time. According to de Volkskrant, this is apparent from an internal document by Van Lienden that ended up at Prime Minister Rutte’s Ministry of General Affairs via Pieter Omtzigt.
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Archive image of Sywert van Lienden.
Ⓒ ANP/HH
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In the piece, which is owned by the newspaper, the media personality offers to supply another 80 million face masks to the government. He had already received an order for 40 million face masks for 100.8 million euros.
In a response, Van Lienden says it was an ‘innocent piece’ with ‘some tips, experiences’. According to him, it concerned a ‘non-profit offer on how you can support society with medical face masks’. Van Lienden emphasizes that Omtzigt was not aware that he and his business partners supplied the government through a commercial company.
01.37 – French part of Sint Maarten introduces curfew
The government on Saint Martin, the French part of the island of Sint Maarten, will introduce a curfew from Sunday. This is a result of the increase in the number of infections on the island. Between 17 and 23 May, 122 new cases were registered, the number of people currently infected has risen to 350.
According to the government, this is reason to introduce new, stricter measures. From Sunday, for example, a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. will apply for at least ten days. Only hotel bars and restaurants are allowed to remain open after curfew. If after ten days the number of infections has not decreased, the curfew will be extended.
There is no curfew on the Dutch part and shops are allowed to remain open until 11 p.m. To prevent people from driving from the French to the Dutch part in the evening, the police will check at the four border crossings. After 8 p.m., people are only allowed to take to the streets from Sunday on Saint Martin due to medical reasons or necessary work.
The alarm was raised on Sint Maarten last week about a sudden increase in the number of infections. So far, however, this increase has been limited. Until the beginning of the month, the number of people infected remained below thirty. In the past ten days that has increased to around eighty, but the number is not increasing any further. Sint Maarten is therefore not introducing any new corona measures at the moment.
01.21 – Evaluation: effect of the CoronaMelder app ‘small but noticeable’
The added value of the CoronaMelder app in detecting corona infections is “small but noticeable.” This is the conclusion of Erasmus University researchers in an evaluation.
According to the research, at least 14,000 infections have come to light through the app. Nearly 190,000 people had themselves tested after a report.
The CoronaNelder reduces the reproduction number by 0.3 percent. This number shows how many people infect each other: with an R-number of 1.2, for example, one hundred people infect a total of 120 others. With a larger number of users, the app can lower this number by up to 2 percent, the researchers said. Due to the app, testing and source and contact research, the reproduction number is now 12.7 percent lower.
According to outgoing corona minister Hugo de Jonge, the evaluation confirms that the app makes “an important contribution” to the rapid detection and containment of corona infections. According to the Ministry of Health, the CoronaMelder has about 3 million active users. The app has been downloaded by 4.9 million people.
You can find the live blog of Friday 28 May here.
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