Friday, June 26, 2020, 7:40 PM
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PROVINCE OF UTRECHT – There are currently five so-called corona clusters in the province of Utrecht. Bas Boogmans, infectious disease physician from the GGD region of Utrecht, told NOS.
“Clusters are different infections that we think are related to each other through a common source,” says Boogmans. In the interview he mainly wants to clarify how infections can arise.
INFECTED
“With a ‘normal’ infection you can wait for the immediate housemates to become infected, that is within the family and we do not call it an outbreak,” says Boogmans.
But that changes as soon as there are infections outside the family context. “As with family members who do not live in the house, but were together. At a barbecue, a wedding, a party or a funeral. If we can link them together, we will speak of a cluster.”
The five clusters in the Utrecht region can all be traced back to family gatherings. Boogmans cannot say exactly what type of meeting led to the infections, due to privacy.
TESTED
In recent days, between 60 and 80 people per day have been tested positive throughout the Netherlands. That is less than 1 percent of the more than 10,000 tests that are taken daily.
People who still get infected now usually get the virus at home or in the family sphere, according to the source and contact research by the GGDs.
It is not known how many clusters there are nationwide. The 25 separate GGDs only pass on the remarkably large clusters to RIVM.
