GGD employees working on test samples at the test location in Leiden. (Photo: Rob van Dullemen).
It is not yet clear what exactly is the cause. But Zoeterwoude is experiencing a new wave of corona virus contamination. In the last seven days, 39 people were tested positive. That is three times as many as in mid-January and comparable to the peak in the Christmas season.
Nationally, the number of new corona cases is declining, although it is agonizingly slow: last week an 8 percent decline and this week, despite all measures, only slightly more than 10 percent will decrease. The desired halving will take another month, if the British virus variant does not throw a spanner in the works.
The Leiden region has seen a slight increase again since two weeks, but it follows a month of sharply declining figures. The situation in our region is still slightly more favorable than in the country. We count nearly 150 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in one week, against a national average of 180.
Multiple clusters
A different story applies to Zoeterwoude. In this small village, with just over eight thousand inhabitants, 39 new infections have been counted in the last seven days. That equates to 450 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants. That is three times the average for the region.
Now the figures in small municipalities more often show significant fluctuations, because you only need one sneeze in the supermarket or a care institution to double that. But such a sharp increase in infections has not yet been measured in Zoeterwoude throughout the year. In the second week of January there were 12 positive cases, last week 25, and this week that number could be above 40.
When asked, the GGD confirms that there are several ‘clusters’ in Zoeterwoude. These are situations in which three or more people have become infected together. Now that the schools are closed, this mainly happens in family settings, in companies and in care institutions. For example, Zoeterwoude had a short contamination peak on the work floor of the autumn Heineken brewery. It is not known whether something similar is happening again. The spokesperson does report that the GGD does not yet see a reason to take action in Zoeterwoude.
Fireplaces
The contamination peak in Zoeterwoude is in line with the pattern of recent weeks. In many municipalities, there are now far fewer infections than in December, but local trouble spots are always popping up where the numbers are rising again. And because the virus fire keeps flaring up somewhere, the total national infection level remains quite high.
In the Leiden region, Voorschoten and Leiderdorp now have fewer than 100 infections per hundred thousand inhabitants. In Leiden and Oegstgeest, the figure is 150 and Zoeterwoude is far above that with an infection rate of 450.
Elsewhere in the Hollands Midden GGD area, the differences are almost as great. In Lisse, which even had a higher infection peak around New Year’s Eve than Zoeterwoude (infection number 540), it is now quiet with only 75 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants. The virus is also relatively quiet in Noordwijk. The neighboring municipality of Katwijk remains a persistent source of fire, again with an infection rate of nearly 300.
Recordings
The hospital admissions in the Leiden region have so far been better this week and the same applies to the deaths from the corona virus. But because these figures are sometimes delayed, a fair weekly balance can only be drawn up on Sunday evening.
Nationally, the number of occupied hospital beds is now decreasing very slowly. On Friday there were 2,231, which is only 300 less than three weeks ago. This offers hospitals little breathing space in the run-up to a third wave, which threatens to emerge in March and April due to the British virus variant.
This article is part of the project “The corona marathon”, which is supported by the Leids Mediafonds
