It should be a day of hope Monday, a day when everyone talks about the European authorization of the vaccine against corona. But that news has been pushed aside by worrisome reports of a mutation of the virus from Britain. The word that Minister Hugo de Jonge of public health used when asked about the mutation that has now been found in the Netherlands was also worrying. Still, there is no reason for panic, according to him.
How big are the concerns? Judging by the measures great. The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, France and Italy have closed airspace with Great Britain. Closing the airspace is a ‘very serious measure’, but ‘justified in view of the situation’, De Jonge and Ferd Grapperhaus (justice) write to the Lower House. Tomorrow they will meet with other ministers involved to discuss the new developments. The Outbreak Management Team is already consulting today.
Protrusion different
In this way they hope to prevent the Netherlands from pursuing the south-east of England. In that region there has been no stopping it in recent weeks. Despite measures, infections continued to increase. When British virologists studied the genetic material of the virus, they saw why. A new variant had emerged in which the protrusion of the virus had changed. With that altered protrusion, the virus binds better to human cells, making it more contagious. In fact, 70 percent more contagious. The new variant does not seem to make people sicker, but that is not entirely certain. The subjects studied with the new mutation were under the age of sixty. The virus strikes less hard in that group than in people over 70.
The British researchers who tracked the mutation saw that the variant has been around in Great Britain since September. Last week, RIVM also found such a mutation in the Netherlands. RIVM was not alone. The variant also emerged in Belgium, Denmark and Australia.
To prevent the mutation from spreading quickly through Europe, European countries must take even tougher measures, World Health Organization WHO writes. Like various other European countries, the Netherlands is already in a lockdown. Yet even stricter measures are ‘conceivable’, De Jonge told ‘RTL Nieuws’ about this. “Like everything is conceivable in this crisis. But, step by step. We first need more information about the infectivity of this virus, and the extent to which that mutation is already present on Dutch soil. ”
Curfew
The cabinet does not have many options for being even stricter. All measures that the roadmap mentions corona in the highest risk category have already been taken. The curfew not included in the roadmap may be another option, as can a visit ban.
The ECDC also calls for extra attention to be paid to re-infections. It could be that antibodies produced against the ‘old’ variant work slightly less well in the new variant, although there is no evidence for this, says the ECDC. The European center also asks to be extra alert to possible unsuccessful vaccinations. The latter is important to see whether the vaccines respond well to the new variant. That will most likely be the case, experts believe.
The bad news may dominate, with infections reaching record highs day after day and hospitals receiving more and more Covid patients, but Monday December 21 will remain the day when the first vaccine against corona is admitted to the European market, while the second vaccine is likely to follow soon.
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Tighter lockdown in London against faster spreading virus
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced stricter measures against the spread of the corona virus in part of the United Kingdom. The reason for the stricter approach is a new strain of the corona virus. It can spread faster than previous variants of the virus.
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