It will take some time before the pressure on healthcare is reduced enough to ease coronavirus measures. The Experts of the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) write this in their Cabinet Advice No. 95. If it continues at the current rate, the threshold of 40 hospitals and 10 admissions per day will be reached by early March. Due to flu season, it may take longer.
The number of admissions to hospitals and intensive care units has stabilized in recent weeks. This week there was a decline. But we are still far from achieving that goal, OMT says. Several beds are still as busy as it was a few weeks ago. The R number fell below 1 to 0.95, meaning 100 people would infect 95 more. But there are still many infections.
In addition, the British variant of the Coronavirus is starting to gain a foothold in the Netherlands. This variant is spreading faster. OMT writes to Cabinet that there are now nearly a hundred positive tests with the British surrogate, many of them in Lansingerland. It seems the teachers gave it to the kids there /
OMT expects to discover more about the British alternative soon and wants to reassess whether schools and childcare facilities can reopen within two weeks.
