A new analysis by the RIVM once again confirms that the coronavirus is having less and less serious consequences. Almost everyone in the Netherlands has built up immunity through vaccinations, infections or a combination of both.
And the omikron variants of the virus take a lesser toll than previous variants. “This does not mean that the virus is harmless for everyone. Because there are groups of vulnerable people who have an increased risk of becoming seriously ill,” the institute adds.
The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment has linked all kinds of data about corona. This concerns, for example, the measurements of virus particles in sewage, hospital figures from the National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE) and the germ surveillance, the laboratory research into the various variants that are circulating.
“The peaks in the number of hospital admissions due to the coronavirus have become less high over time, even though the spread of the virus has increased since the arrival of the omikron variant,” RIVM explains. The number of admissions to intensive care has also been relatively lower since last year than in the previous two years.
Alpha- a delta variant
The publication comes at a time when the number of hospital admissions has risen again to over nine hundred. Despite this increase, the institute notes that the number of admissions relative to the amount of virus particles was much higher when the alpha and delta variants were circulated.
The institute provides insight into these changed relationships with a number of new graphs. “The decreasing trend indicates that over time, with a certain degree of virus circulation in society, less severe disease occurs.”
The omikron variants of the virus have reached an “endemic phase”, it is said. The Outbreak Management Team (OMT) recently already had this insight. It includes experts from RIVM and other institutes.
Despite the reassuring signals, the institute continues to “keep a close eye” on the spread of the virus.