According to the Outbreak Management Team (OMT), the corona pandemic is officially over, the last corona measures can be thrown overboard. But that does not mean that corona is completely gone, says UMCG virologist Bert Niesters from Zeegsze. “We know that the virus is there and will remain. Just like the flu and other respiratory infections.”
There is no longer a pandemic, corona is now in the so-called endemic phase. That means that the virus is there and will revive from time to time.
Exactly three years ago, on February 27, 2020, the first corona case was diagnosed in the Netherlands. Niesters heard about it when he was on holiday in Valencia. “We also didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. Of course we were a bit worried, but we didn’t think it would become such a big pandemic. I also regularly received calls from Groningen that we had to make preparations. I wasn’t nervous because you know what to do. It’s your job.”
“It has been an exciting time,” says Niesters, looking back on the past three years. “We were reasonably well prepared and knew how to protect the hospital as best as possible. Then there were all kinds of challenges: how are we going to take it further? But I think we were able to solve it reasonably, with combined forces.”
Niesters himself was also affected by corona and had to deal with lung covid. “I am no longer the old one, that is gradually coming back. That is a bit disappointing. It also applies to my wife, who I unfortunately also infected at the time. It is more difficult to walk for a long time, for example, while that was completely was no point.”