In the past week, 28,019 infections came to light, 27 percent less than the week before. It is the second week in a row since the end of May that the RIVM has recorded a decline on a weekly basis and the largest decline in twelve weeks. According to the National Institute, the decrease may partly be related to the summer holidays, but “the decrease is also visible in the number of reports from nursing homes, which are expected to be unaffected or hardly affected by holidays.”
The ‘what wonderful summer wave’ is thus coming to an end, according to Louis Kroes, virologist and microbiologist at the LUMC. “The wave was special because we usually see fewer infections like this in the summer. This shows once again that this corona variant is particularly contagious and the immunity in the population decreases. That is to say: the protection against serious infections is still there, but less against more superficial upper respiratory infections.”
‘No measures on holiday’
Most people who become infected have the BA.5 variant of omicron. This variant has been dominant in the Netherlands since June. According to the WHO, the subvariant has no difference in pathogenicity or rate of infection compared to the original omicron variant. The subvariant BA.2.75, better known as ‘centaurus’, has only been found once in germ surveillance so far.
“It is not yet entirely clear how immune we are to it. We will certainly keep an eye on things. In the countries around us, we also see that the number of infections with this variant is increasing,” says Kroes, who cites England and Germany as examples. However, according to him, there is no reason to panic and you do not have to take any extra measures even if you are on holiday there. “It would be unnecessary to worry about that. Gradually we have to get used to the fact that corona is part of it.”
The influx in hospitals decreased last week. 24.5 percent fewer infected people were admitted (534 compared to 707 a week earlier). Of those more than 500 people, 27 ended up in intensive care. A total of 1,092 people are now in hospital with corona in the Netherlands.
Nijmegen Four Days Marches
Nijmegen has had the most infections in recent days. The Four Days Marches took place there last week. The city of Gelderland registered 238 positive tests between Monday and Tuesday morning. This is followed by Amsterdam (171 infections), Rotterdam (134 infections) and Utrecht (90) infections.
These kinds of events, together with the holiday period, could have played a role in the peak, Kroes thinks. “There is actually free play for the virus: there are no longer any significant restrictions in the Netherlands. We have consciously – and with good reason – opted for this. We have looked very carefully at whether this would be justified in terms of consequences, so far it has been shown that this is indeed the case.”
According to the virologist, numbers of infections are not a serious consequence in themselves. “It is annoying and entails a nice period of illness for some people, but the risk of complication with this virus is low. In that regard, I also support the policy of Kuipers (Minister of Health). Intervene only in emergency situations: when things threaten to get out of hand in terms of health care burden. Until now, that has not been the case. Before the autumn, we must calmly examine to what extent it is possible to continue on this foot in terms of policy, also with regard to events.”