Not many people have a corona test performed when they have complaints.
Photo: ANP / Robin Utrecht
Hardly anyone is really concerned about it anymore, but the number of confirmed corona infections has risen again. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) continues to report the number of positive corona tests on a weekly basis. There were 4583 in the past week.
In the seven days before that there were 3805. According to the RIVM, it is not yet possible to say whether the carnival period plays a part in the increase.
coronabesmettingen at carnival
Carnival was celebrated last week and the weekend before. If many people have infected each other at the parties, some of them will have developed complaints sometime in the course of last week. In the south of the country, last week’s corona figures seem to be slightly higher on average than in the north, but RIVM still calls the numbers “not sufficient to make any statements about this”.
The number of corona infections has been increasing for several weeks, a spokesperson further emphasizes. In addition, the south of the country had a holiday last week, which may also affect the spread of corona. “We are also still in the season of respiratory infections,” he says. For example, there is still flu going around in the Netherlands.
No test at the GGD
The positive test results do not give a complete picture of the extent to which the corona virus is among us anyway. This is because most people, if they have complaints, do not take a test at the GGD. At the end of last year, experts argued to ‘let go of all the latest corona measures’. This “because other cold viruses are not tested either”.
Results from the other measuring instruments show that the number of corona infections is increasing. For example, last week the proportion of participants in the Infection Radar who passed on a positive test result increased. The number of virus particles in the sewage water also increased further.
With corona in the hospital
A similar picture can be seen in hospitals. Last week, 442 people with corona became so ill that they had to be hospitalized. A week earlier, this involved 316 people.
Several sub-variants of the virus are currently circulating in the Netherlands (see the video above). They all come from the omikron family, says the RIVM. For example, the number of infections with XBF, a variant that is also circulating in Australia, is currently rising. There are as yet no indications that the subvariants are more pathogenic than their predecessors.
Last week, the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) advised the cabinet to stop large-scale testing for corona. The virus is now part of everyday life, the experts say. It is not yet clear whether the cabinet will adopt the advice and whether testing will therefore end.
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Increase in corona infections, link with carnival is not yet clear