Van Dissel: ‘41,000 hospital admissions prevented by lockdown ‘| Inland

Parliamentary reporter Elif Isitman is present at the meeting in the House. Follow her tweets at the bottom of this post.

The vaccination capacity in the Netherlands must be expanded in the near future to such an extent that 2.5 million injections per week can be administered, says Jaap van Delden, who is in charge of the vaccination program at RIVM.

If several pharmaceutical companies deliver large batches of vaccines at the same time in a while, the services involved in the vaccinations want to be able to puncture them as quickly as possible. The GGDs are investigating whether they can provide 1.5 million vaccinations per week. General practitioners and hospitals are willing to help and could take care of the rest.

The lockdown has prevented approximately 41,000 hospital admissions since mid-December, said Jaap van Dissel of the RIVM. This includes the effects of the curfew and the advice to receive no more than one person per day at home. Those measures took effect a month ago. According to the calculations of the RIVM, questioned by some critics, approximately 6,300 admissions were prevented in intensive care because of all the limitations. In the period that Van Dissel is talking about, more than 2500 IC admissions were reported.

The Lower House will continue to debate on Wednesday about the approach to the corona crisis. The relaxation that will be implemented at the beginning of March is central to the debate. On Tuesday evening it was announced that secondary schools and secondary vocational education will partly open again from 1 March.

In addition, from 3 March, young people up to the age of 27 may again exercise outside together at sports facilities. In addition, contact professions may be resumed and the retail trade may be open for shopping by appointment.

Criticism from the left and right

“For the first time I have the idea that I did not watch a press conference of Prime Minister Rutte, but of the party leader of the VVD,” tweeted GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver on Tuesday evening after the cabinet’s press conference. According to him, “the logic is missing: you can have your nails done, but a student is not allowed to study in the university library,” he writes.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s corona statements arouse irritation, says political commentator Wouter de Winther in a new episode of the podcast Afhameren:

The other left-wing opposition parties are also not very enthusiastic about the announced relaxation. According to SP party chairman Lilian Marijnissen, the cabinet will not keep its promises by maintaining the curfew. Earlier, Rutte and Corona Minister Hugo de Jonge said that this measure would be one of the first to be dropped. PvdA leader Lilianne Ploumen thinks that the perspective for young people is lacking. “Arbitrariness rules and that must change.”

Geert Wilders responds briefly on Twitter to Rutte, who wanted to agree with the whole of the Netherlands that everyone would observe the measures. “We do not agree anything with you, Rutte, except that we have had enough of you,” said the PVV leader.

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