LIVE | ‘Half of parents 12 to 17-year-olds want to have their child vaccinated’ Inland

• How linked is the delta variant? ‘When young people come back from vacation, things can go wrong’
• Less than 200 corona patients in intensive care, 585 new infections

19.49 – Turkey eases national lockdown on July 1

In Turkey, the corona lockdown will be further relaxed on July 1. Several restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus are disappearing. For example, more is possible on Sundays and the curfew is no longer available on weekdays. Public transport will also return to normal.

According to Turkish President Erdogan, it is possible because the number of new infections has fallen to about 5000 per day. Turkey had already started easing the corona measures in recent weeks. Restaurants were allowed to reopen for a limited number of guests. Many restrictions for the weekdays were also abolished. The lockdown did not already apply to tourists.

In April, Turkey still had a peak of more than 60,000 corona infections per day.

18.15 – India sets vaccination record with 7.8 million shots in a day

In India, 7.8 million people received a corona vaccine on Monday, a record. In recent weeks, the daily average in the country of 1.4 billion inhabitants was about 3 million. An explanation for the increase is that all adults can now get a free shot, while previously in many cases they had to pay.

In April and May, the health system was overwhelmed by the large influx of victims. The numbers have fallen sharply in recent weeks. Many states have now relaxed the corona measures, raising fears of a new wave.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has taken over control of the corona policy of the federal states, is pleased with the injection record. “Well done India,” he tweeted on International Yoga Day. According to him, yoga gives a lot of “inner strength” to cope with the disease and also offers protection against the virus.

A total of 280 million doses have been administered, but only 4 percent of the population is fully protected against the virus. The government’s goal is to have all nearly 1.1 billion adults vaccinated by the end of the year. In India, more than 388,000 people have died from Covid-19, according to official figures, the highest number after the US and Brazil. The actual number is probably much higher.

17.28 – Major study into the effect of the second corona jab after Janssen’s injection

Four academic hospitals will investigate whether it is useful to give people who have been vaccinated with Janssen’s corona vaccine a second shot. In principle, one shot is sufficient for this vaccine, certainly to prevent serious illness from the virus. “Due to the increasing circulation of certain variants of the coronavirus, it is possible that an additional vaccination is necessary after one shot of Janssen,” reports Erasmus MC.

The hospital in Rotterdam will investigate the effects of a second dose, together with Amsterdam UMC, Leiden UMC and UMC Groningen. The test subjects who receive a second injection are employees of the four centers. Some of them receive the Janssen vaccine again as a second shot. Others receive a dose of the corona vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna.

Mixing vaccines can have a number of potential benefits. Efficacy against the coronavirus is paramount, but if one person can receive two shots from different manufacturers, vaccination campaigns become more flexible, says Hugo van der Kuy, head of Pharmacy at Erasmus MC. The vaccination process can then be faster and the impact of delivery problems is less.

Studies into combining vaccines are also underway in other countries. The first foreign studies into combining an AstraZeneca vaccine with another vaccine indicate that this is safe and produces a good immune response.

The researchers want to investigate the effect of combining vaccines against the different variants of the coronavirus. They think the combination “could lead to a broader immune response.” The first results are expected at the end of October.

The Health Council is also still working on an advice on combining corona vaccines. It is not yet known when that will be released. The Council still has too little information about it and is waiting for research results, including from a large British study into this.

17.20 – Mayors’ Security Council enters’ vigil ‘

The mayors in the Security Council will go into ‘watch mode’ on Monday. They actively keep each other informed. If there are reasons to take measures in the summer, they want to intervene quickly. “We don’t want the same as last year when we had to scaling up again after the summer,” says chairman Hubert Bruls.

The mayor of Nijmegen warns that the virus can spread quickly again. A local fire may have spread across the country a week later. “You have to be ahead of that moment,” says Bruls. He sees no reason to sit back as a Security Council. “A wake-up call is needed.”

The meeting in which the chairmen of the 25 security regions sit continues to be concerned about the unpredictability of the virus. “We are also not one hundred percent sure how the vaccines work, how long they protect and whether they also prevent spread. That is why the quarantine provisions remain very essential. The pandemic is not over yet,” says Bruls. He does not want to think that the country would have to go into lockdown again. “That is a huge blow to society.”

14.40 – ‘Half of parents 12 to 17 year olds want to have their child vaccinated’

Half (53 percent) of parents want their child aged 12 to 17 years to be vaccinated against corona when the Health Council advises. A third (34 percent) does not like such a vaccination, reported EenVandaag after research among 1500 parents with a child in that age group.

The Health Council previously advised vaccinating children aged 12 to 17 with a high medical risk. An advice on vaccinating healthy children in that age group is expected in early July. This is already happening in the US and a number of European countries. Three out of ten parents surveyed (33 percent) say they will definitely have their child vaccinated and 19 percent probably. Another 1 percent has already had their child vaccinated against corona because they fall into a risk group. In total, half (53 percent) of the parents are positive about vaccinating their adolescents.

12.41 – VWS donates 2 million self-tests to Poverty Fund and Food Bank

As of Monday, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) will donate 2 million corona self-tests to the Poverty Fund and Food Bank NL.

The tests are distributed through eleven distribution points of Food Bank NL and another distribution point of the Stichting Poverty Fund. From there they go to the minimums in particular.

In this way, the ministry hopes to increase the willingness of these people to test.

7.49 -Germany reports lowest increase in corona cases since August

The German authorities have identified fewer than 500 new corona infections for the first time since August last year. The RKI health institute, the counterpart of the Dutch RIVM, announced Monday morning that 346 people had tested positive in the previous 24 hours.

The last time the RKI registered fewer than 500 infections in a 24-hour period was on August 10, according to news agency DPA. The daily corona figures are more often low on Mondays. That’s because it’s quieter on the test streets on weekends.

Germany also reported another milestone last weekend. The number of corona patients in intensive care fell below 1000 for the first time in eight months, medical professional organization DIVI reported. There were more than 5000 patients there at the height of the corona crisis.

Fewer and fewer new infections have been reported in Germany since April. This is probably because more and more Germans are being vaccinated against the virus.

7.00 – Hundreds died because ICs were full

Thousands of people who suffered from something other than corona were worse off during the pandemic than in years before. Hundreds more people died after accidents because they were not admitted to the IC. 15 percent more of the kidney patients on dialysis died.

According to the AD, this is apparent from research into the impact of corona on care that has been carried out by the Collaborative Quality Registers (SKR), which have data on more than ten million patients in the Netherlands. In collaboration with scientific associations, large-scale research has been carried out for the first time into the quality of care in 2020.

Of the 80,000 patients who normally end up in the trauma department after an accident or, for example, a fall at home, 2.4 percent died in 2018 and 2019 from the severity of the injury. These new figures now show that 2.9 percent died in corona time.

Kidney patients on dialysis ran a very high risk if they became infected with corona. A quarter of all dialysis patients with corona died. Of the total number of dialysis patients, no less than 20 percent died in 2020. That was 1,270 kidney patients, 15 percent more than the previous years.

6.46 – Majority of people tried to stay fit during pandemic

The majority of Dutch people have been busy staying fit during the corona crisis. This is the conclusion of the Brain Foundation after an investigation. Despite the restrictions, almost two thirds (65 percent) of people have remained physically active during the lockdown, for example by walking or cycling.

For example, because the gyms were closed for a while, people started looking for ways to keep moving. Of the people who stayed active, 86 percent said they went for a walk and 55 percent went cycling. Running and rollerblading are especially popular among younger people. More than 40 percent of the people who remained active have even started to exercise more than before the crisis. More than three quarters (77 percent) of them indicate that they want to maintain this even after the pandemic.

For the study, 1072 people aged 18 years or older were interviewed. The questions were asked more than a month ago.

The Brain Foundation also states that 12 percent of the Dutch have gone to sleep more since the corona crisis. However, the quality of sleep has decreased for 15 percent of people. This may be because people lie in the evening worrying because they are worried about the future.

6.37 – Mayors no longer just talk about corona

The 25 mayors who together form the Security Council have a regular meeting in Utrecht on Monday for the first time in a long time. According to a spokeswoman, this means that the corona crisis is only one of the topics on the agenda. The council also discusses other topics that concern the security regions.

According to the mayors, there is currently no reason to spend an entire meeting on corona. The council is discussing the progress of the measures now that there are already many relaxations. The mayors are also looking ahead to the summer period if they scale down even further. And to reintroducing stricter restrictions at that time, if necessary. Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus is at the meeting.

The Security Council will meet once more at the end of the month for a corona meeting. In the summer there is only consultation when necessary, probably digitally.

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