It’s a bit weird though. Irma (38) and Tijmen (41) from Nieuwegein have been extra careful with corona for over two years, because Tijmen lacks a lung and is therefore vulnerable. And now, just as corona seems to be gone, they have both been vaccinated three times and summer is approaching: yes. Corona.
‘It is actually no longer in your system to think about corona or to do a self-test,’ says Irma. ‘But Tijmen has the classic signs of corona. Sore throat, fatigue, muscle pain. So we did that self-test anyway.’ With, surprise, two dashes as a result. “I’m glad this didn’t happen two and a half years ago. He does fall into the category: potential hospital patient’, says Irma.
Hospital admissions
Tijmen and Irma – they do not want their surname in the newspaper for privacy reasons – are certainly not the only ones with whom the corona virus has reappeared. For the first time since March, RIVM reported an increase in the number of people who tested positive this week: from seven to more than nine thousand. The number of hospital admissions is also increasing slightly, although it is not always easy to say whether corona is also the reason for the admission. This may be a coincidence, but at the same time an increase of not one, but three new subspecies of the omikron variant is being observed. They have the special property that they can still infect people who already had corona or have been vaccinated before, according to first South African studies†
It is still too early to speak of a summer wave, emphasizes epidemiologist Susan van den Hof of the RIVM when asked. ‘I don’t want to cause panic at all. But what we’re seeing could be the start of an uptick in infections. That wouldn’t be illogical either: the variants that we see emerging spread a little more easily.’
The newcomers, called BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1, are expected to gain the upper hand in our country as early as this month, the RIVM thinks. In countries such as South Africa and Portugal, where the variants became dominant earlier, a modest increase in the number of hospital admissions followed. On the other hand, vaccination and previous infection usually still protect well against the disease getting out of hand.
Calm waters
Overall, the pandemic is still in calm waters. Worldwide, the number of recorded deaths fell by more than 20 percent, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported this week. The decrease is strongest in Europe: more than two thousand corona deaths last week, seven of which in the Netherlands.
Yet BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1 lead to problems in more places. In Israel, local corona pope Salman Zarka said that a summer golf is inevitableand in the US – where only one in three people has been boosted – another 100 thousand infections per week and between 250 and 400 corona deaths per day. The omikron wave, mild in Europe, has now become the second deadliest corona wave that one had.
In the more than 300 Dutch sewage treatment plants, the picture is still calm. However, there seems to be a bit more virus going around in the west of the country, and especially around The Hague, Van den Hof points out.
The fact that it is summer, low season for respiratory viruses, does make a difference. Experts assume that covid causes about 20 to 40 percent fewer infections in the summer. At the same time, during last year’s ‘dancing with Janssen’ peak, the corona virus also showed that revivals in the summer are quite possible.
In Nieuwegein, Tijmen has resigned himself to the fact that he is now officially a corona patient. ‘It’s a bit like a man’s flu, you know’, says Irma. ‘Living in bed a lot, relaxing, Netflix and X-boxes. We’ve both already said: if this is all, we’ll sign for it.’