The more contagious omikron variant of the coronavirus has caused more than 50 percent of the infections since this week and has thus supplanted the delta variant as the dominant variant in the Netherlands. The RIVM has announced this.
In the past week, the number of positive tests fell by 11 percent to 84,400. But that drop is more modest than the 19 percent of the seven days before. RIVM is convinced that omikron will lead to an increase in the number of infections in the near future and that the number of admissions to hospitals will subsequently also increase.
twenties largest group
In addition to previous measures, the outgoing cabinet introduced a lockdown on December 19, which is intended to slow down the advance of omikron. The hope is that the current booster campaign can lead to the reproduction number of omikron falling below 1 in the course of January and that the pressure on healthcare will be limited as much as possible.
Part of the cabinet measures was that the schools started the Christmas holidays a week earlier. This is probably why children were not responsible for most infections for the first time in a long time in the past week. A decrease in the number of positive tests was seen in all age groups, except among 18 to 30-year-olds.
In previous waves, the infections first increased in the younger groups, who visit the hospital less often, then generally followed by the older age categories.
Limburg North is least affected
The Amsterdam Municipal Health Service (GGD) region was the first to report that omikron had become dominant there. It is probably no coincidence that this was the region with the most positive tests in the past seven days: 627 out of 100,000 inhabitants, where 482 is the average for the whole of the Netherlands. Then comes the nearby Gooi en Vechtstreek with 585. It is striking that Limburg-North, previously one of the worst affected areas, now has the lowest infection pressure of all.
The last known reproduction number, December 13, was 0.90. That means that at that time 100 infected people infected 90 others and the epidemic thus decreased in strength. But the fear is that this situation is now outdated or that the ‘R-number’ is in any case on the rise.
According to the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS), there were 2006 covid patients in hospitals this morning; a decrease of 15 percent compared to the previous week. Of them, 535 were in intensive care, a decrease of 13 percent. The number of admissions is also still falling.
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