RIVM is concerned about the number of corona cases | Inland

The coronavirus is mainly spread in autumn and winter. “The seasonal effect on the reproduction number is 10 to 15 percent. That will turn against us,” says Van Dissel.

Astronomical Fall begins on September 22. A few days earlier, the cabinet wants to further relax the corona measures. That is possible, says Van Dissel. “In the near future, a group will build up immunity and hopefully other people will still be vaccinated. That helps to control and keep the virus under control.”

According to the RIVM boss, there are in fact two outbreaks going on in the Netherlands: one among vaccinated people and one among people who have not been vaccinated. “The main spread is among the non-immune group. In part, that spills over to the group that is immune.” Almost three quarters of the people who are now admitted to hospital because of corona complaints have not been vaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated. About 15 percent of the admitted corona patients are fully vaccinated. In some cases, the vaccine does not work well due to problems with their immune system.

Intensive care

RIVM expects that about 16,000 to 22,000 corona patients will still end up in hospital in the coming period, of whom 2,200 to 3,400 in intensive care. According to Van Dissel, these will mainly be unvaccinated people. “But will it come in a month or will it extend over two years? We cannot predict that, the modeling is too complex.”

Van Dissel calls on people to use self-tests. If the self-test is positive, this is confirmed in nine out of ten cases in the test line of the GGD. By now, half of all new cases concern people who first did a self-test, saw that they were positive and then went to a test location to get certainty.

The coronavirus was first diagnosed in the Netherlands 1.5 years ago. Since then, about 1.9 million people have tested positive. The RIVM estimates that in reality about 4 million Dutch people have contracted the virus. Some 60,000 people have been hospitalized, about 13,300 of whom are in intensive care. About 18,000 people are certain to have died of the corona virus.

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