Kuipers: when releasing measures, possibly to 10,000 infections per day

Ernst Kuipers, the chairman of the National Network Acute Care, fears a rapidly rising number of infections if the corona measures are released. According to him, due to the delta variant and the group immunity that is still too low, we could be dealing with 10,000 infections per day.

“We take growth into account when there is more mobility: people go back to work, come back from vacation and schools open again,” says Kuipers. news hour. “Then the number of infections will rise again.”

Kuipers believes that we should learn lessons from the previous strong relaxation at the end of June, after which the infections rose rapidly. “That has not been convenient, and we are still dealing with that in the hospitals. The hospital occupancy has decreased, but the occupancy in the ICUs has yet to decrease.”

Vaccination rate still too low

Kuipers is pleased that the willingness to vaccinate is high in the Netherlands. But we’re not there yet. “We are now slowly creeping towards an 85 percent vaccination rate. But that means that you are still left with two million people who have not been vaccinated and who have not had corona.”

Far-reaching relaxation in the United Kingdom has not yet led to higher infections. But according to Kuipers, this also has to do with the starting level when the relaxations take effect. “To make a comparison: we now have about 200 people in the ICU. Last year at this time we had about twenty people in the ICU, a factor of ten lower. And even then, in August, we gradually up, but then you start low.”

Kuipers argues in favor of doing more to persuade people to vaccinate, such as with special injection cans in the neighborhoods.

According to Kuipers, not getting vaccinated is “possible risk behaviour”. Still, he says hospitals will always help people who get sick, vaccinated or not. “For the hospitals, that means that they will also focus on keeping the capacity increased for the autumn.”

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