On 5 November, the cabinet will evaluate the current corona measures. But now that the number of infections is rapidly rising again, concerns are also increasing. This is how Saturday moved in Fidelity the hospital administrators. On Friday, 139 new hospitalizations were reported, the highest number since May. The total number of corona patients in Dutch hospitals rose to 703 on Saturday. As far as hospital administrators are concerned, the cabinet must intervene earlier to prevent care from becoming overloaded.
They are not the only ones concerned. For example, OMT members Diederik Gommers, Marion Koopmans and Marc Bonten do not expect the mandatory closing of the catering industry at midnight for the time being. It may even be necessary to ‘take the brakes further’, says Koopmans, who, in addition to being an OMT member, is also professor of virology at Erasmus MC.
But how? And which measures are sensible?
‘The situation is that 179 people with a corona infection are currently in the ICU. In our forecast of October 8, we did not expect a peak of 180 corona patients in the ICU until January. When you hear that, you think: things are going completely wrong now’, says Gommers, who, in addition to being an OMT member, also works as an IC doctor at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam.
‘The question will be how the number of infections will develop in the coming weeks, and how much stretch the hospitals still have. That will determine how and how quickly action must be taken’, adds medical microbiologist Marc Bonten.
Horeca
The OMT will meet next week to analyze the most recent figures and to advise the cabinet on that basis. ‘I don’t want to speculate yet about the discussion we will have with each other next week,’ says Koopmans.
They hope that new measures can be prevented. ‘The vast majority of people on the ICUs have not been vaccinated. If you now take generic measures again, you will only get further polarization’, says Gommers. He finds it a difficult situation, one where emotions run high. ‘One is angry if The Hague does not take measures quickly enough, the other is angry if The Hague takes measures at all.’
Moreover, he continues, ‘the current situation cannot be compared with that of a year and a half ago. We know where many unvaccinated people live and where the outbreaks are. That makes it very difficult to say: we will lock the whole country again.’
For example, he does not think the proposal that Ernst Kuipers, chairman of the National Network Acute Care (LNAZ) made on Saturday, is a bad plan. Kuipers said in it AD that it ‘may be necessary to set local lockdowns on the basis of the infection and vaccination rate, as is now for example in Staphorst’.
“We know that there are currently hot spots of infection in The Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam and in the Bible Belt,” says Gommers. ‘The measures you take must therefore be appropriate to the current situation. Because why should a catering entrepreneur in the east of the country close his business, because there are many infections in the Randstad?’
To enforce
His OMT colleague Bonten sees objections, however. ‘How are you going to maintain that? Moreover, half of the unvaccinated live throughout the country.’ As far as he is concerned, the government must do even more to convince unvaccinated people to get a shot. “There is still a lot to gain. Only a small proportion are not vaccinated because of their religion, the majority are not well informed or belong to the group that throws its ass against the manger.’
But the most important thing is the behavior of the citizens themselves, say Bonten, Koopmans and Gommers. ‘There are still measures in place, such as staying at home in case of complaints, working from home if possible and the corona pass. But I don’t have the impression that they are being followed properly. And those are the basic measures that we know are effective,’ says Koopmans.
As far as she is concerned, ‘the ball is now in the first place with the citizen’. Her colleague Gommers agrees. ‘Suppose you live in Amsterdam and you know that there are many infections there, then you can still take this into account by avoiding crowded places. And just put a mouth cap on it again in the store, that’s not so bad, is it?’
He emphasizes that ‘we really have to do it together’. ‘In the previous phase, the cabinet took measures, security regions were responsible for enforcement and citizens had to obey. This will no longer work at this stage. Everyone must do their part and take responsibility. After all, we have to learn to live with the virus.’
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