Hospital occupancy increased significantly in recent weeks, number of IC patients low
The number of reported infections in the Netherlands has been rising again since the beginning of June. After a few quiet months in the test streets – GGD tests are only recommended for healthcare workers and the vulnerable – nearly 3 thousand infections per day were reported last week. That is 76 percent more than a week earlier, and three times as much as at the end of May. A large proportion of these infections involve the omikron subtypes BA4 and BA5. Samples show that these mutations have been dominant since early June.
The number of corona patients is increasing in the nursing wards of hospitals, with about 50 new admissions every day. Most patients end up in hospital because of corona, a third test ‘coincidentally’ positive. With 459 corona patients in hospital, the occupancy is more than four times higher than at the beginning of July last year, just before the so-called ‘Dancing with Jansen’ peak. There are now 23 corona patients on the IC, much fewer than the more than 100 just before the summer holidays last year.
Fourth shot significantly less popular
The extra booster shot for people older than 60 and people with vulnerable health and nursing home residents is much less popular than previous vaccinations. Just over 43 percent of the over 60s received the so-called repeat jab since the beginning of March. More than 90 percent of the over-80s are fully vaccinated and more than 85 percent have been boosted. Only slightly more than half of them received a repeat shot afterwards.
People in their sixties and seventies get this shot even less often. Of the Dutch people born between 1956 and 1960, 24 percent have now been vaccinated four times. In the elderly, protection decreases more quickly after vaccination or a corona infection, according to the RIVM. People over the age of seventy are relatively most often hospitalized as a result of Covid-19.