IC doctor Gommers: ‘Put all your energy into the source and contact research, otherwise the house of cards will fall apart’

“There has indeed been an increase in the number of people infected,” says Gommers. On Wednesday, the number of newly infected people in the Rijnmond region was 312. The days before there were 168 and 179. “But we see a very slow increase in intensive care and in hospitals. In our region there are fourteen people with COVID. -19 in intensive care and we have 125 beds, so we’re not in any trouble at all, but the signals aren’t good. “

That is a different situation than during the first wave. Then the ICs overflowed. Now that is not the case yet. The majority of people who are now infected do not become seriously ill and do not need to go to the ICU. Of course we have to minimize the spread of the virus, but that is not the biggest challenge.

“Those are the over-50s, because they get sick and come to hospitals and intensive care. If more and more young people are infected, they also infect the elderly. The greatest fear is that they will become ill.”

Source and contact investigation under pressure

That is why source and contact research is invaluable. You use this to track down the source and get to know the virus. But that is where the problem is at the moment. The GGDs are extremely busy with overcrowded test streets and understaffed source and contact research.

More infections means more tests. More tests require more contact investigation. That worries Gommers. “Of course we had that in February,” says Gommers. “When things went so fast at Carnival, they couldn’t control it and then things got out of hand.”

We have to anticipate a situation such as in March and April where the ICs flooded, says Gommers. Anyone who does not know that he is infected can infect others. He insists that source and contact research is done properly and quickly. “I understand that it is difficult, but we saw this coming. We really need to put energy into source and contact research, otherwise the house of cards will fall apart.”

Successes

The experts did learn a lot about treating corona patients during the first wave. “When we got it in March, we didn’t know anything about the disease; it was a new virus to us. We’ve gained experience and success with certain drugs in the meantime. Not to tackle the virus itself, but the side effects. , such as thrombosis and cytokine storm (too many cytokines at the same time cause an inflammatory reaction, ed.). As a result, it seems that we spend less time in intensive care and that gives more capacity. “

The cabinet will therefore announce measures on Friday. Due to the source and contact investigation, the GGDs in the country should know exactly who is infected and where. As a result, regional measures can be taken where necessary, Gommers thinks. According to Gommers, it will probably not be a national lockdown.

“I expect good measures that are appropriate for the groups that are infected. If they are students, do something for them.” But it is also: “Dotting the i’s on the agreements we have made with each other. Fortunately we are in the circumstances that we are allowed to go to cafes and restaurants again, but you can see that we did that first with routes and distance. , but that it has decreased in the past two months. “

According to Gommers, a lockdown is no longer of this time. “We are in a completely different situation than in March. Then it happened to us and we were too late. Now we are better on it. It stands or falls with the contact investigation, but the ICs and hospitals are not overflowing. We have to deliver customization. , because the economy and life also just keep going. “

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