It is striking that the number of infections among the elderly is increasing more rapidly
Publication:
Fri 25 December 2020 3.57 pm
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LEEUWARDEN – The coronavirus infections continue to rise sharply in Friesland, but less quickly than in the previous two weeks. The GGD Fryslân reports this. Where the increase was 40 percent higher every week in December, this was almost 30 percent this week. The situation therefore remains very serious, according to the GGD.
Due to Christmas, the weekly figures are from Thursday and cover a period of six instead of seven days. In the past six days, 1,533 infections were added, an average of 256 per day. A week earlier, there were 1,387 infections in seven days. At 198 a day, this was more than a quarter less. The effect of the heavier lockdown in numbers is not expected until after Christmas.
It is striking that the number of infections among the elderly is rising faster than in other age groups. This applies to people in their fifties, sixties and seventies.
Loneliness
Slightly more than half of the Frisians feel lonely in this corona period. This is evident from panel research by GGD Fryslân among 2,282 inhabitants. This is a considerably larger proportion of the population than in the first corona wave. Then half of the young people felt lonely and the percentage in other age groups remained lower. Young people up to the age of 25 experience psychological complaints more often than other age groups, they also feel lonely more often.
Despite the difficult time, 88% of the participants understand a maximum of three guests at home during Christmas, this is less than with other measures. One explanation could be that this limitation has a little (32%) or a lot (25%) impact on the participants. Nevertheless, 82% say they will stick to it. Most of them celebrate Christmas at home (75%) or with family (20%), a small proportion celebrate it with friends (1%) or do something else (3%).
With Christmas approaching, the infectious disease control doctors at GGD Fryslân have expressed their concerns about the spread of the virus because people visit each other. Even within the restrictions imposed by the cabinet, the virus can be given sufficient opportunity for this.
Vaccination
The preparations for the vaccination at WTC Expo in Leeuwarden will continue during the Christmas holidays. The vaccination of healthcare workers will start on January 18. The recruitment of employees for vaccination work in the next six months has now generated 325 responses from staff of care institutions and the Safety Region. This number shows the great willingness to contribute to this. In addition to ‘pickers’, it concerns, among others, hosts and women, parking attendants and doctors. External recruitment of personnel has also started.
Number of tests
For the sixth week in a row, the number of tests administered by the GGD has increased. In the past six days, 11,460 have been done, 1910 per day. Last week this was 13,157 in seven days, 1,880 a day. The sixth test location of GGD Fryslân opened in Heerenveen.
Since the beginning of March, more than half a million inhabitants of the Northern Netherlands have been tested for corona, of which more than 170,000 from Fryslân. It means that roughly one in four Frisians has been tested once. The virus was found in 12,862 residents of the province, about 7.5 percent of the group that was checked. This week the death of three people with the virus was reported to the GGD and nine hospital admissions were added.
Municipalities
The number of new positive tests in the municipalities in the past six days: Leeuwarden 284, Súdwest-Fryslân 270, Waadhoeke 145, Noordoost Fryslân 126, The Frisian Lakes 116, Smallingerland 97Achtkarspel 89, Dantumadiel 78, Heerenveen 67, Weststellingwerf 66, Opsterland 51, Tytsjerksteradiel 51, Ooststellingwerf 44, Ameland 27, Harlingen 17, Terschelling 4, Vlieland 1 and Schiermonnikoog 0.
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