In Suriname, a striking number of young people are seriously affected by the corona virus, says infectiologist Denise Telgt of Radboudumc and the Sint Maartenkliniek in Nijmegen. Telgt coordinates the help of Dutch medical personnel to Suriname and was in the country for a week before that. In the NOS Radio 1 News she reported.
“People under the age of 30 become seriously ill and often die before they have reached the hospital,” said the infectiologist, who has now been back in the Netherlands for a week. “In the first weekend I was there, people aged 19, 26 and 32 died. Our own driver, aged 33, also died last Saturday.”
‘Golf ten times as big’
It is one of the signs that the situation is more serious than last year, during the previous waves. This is because the Brazilian corona mutation, the so-called gamma variant, is now dominant in Suriname. “The wave today is ten times that of last year. Then 6 people a month died, now 6 to 12 a day. People are much sicker when they enter the hospital.”
Suriname has a population of just under 600,000 people.
Last week, the country introduced slight easing. Shops are open again and people are allowed to be on the street again. This is mainly due to the socio-economic situation, says Telgt. “It has to be, otherwise many people have no income.”
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