The elderly are among the most vulnerable of groups when it comes to the risk brought about by the coronavirus.
Nursing homes pose a danger during this current crisis due to the close proximity of many elderly. A recent report by the NRC estimates that there are around 5,300 coronavirus cases in nursing homes according to NOS.
120,000 people live in nursing homes in the Netherlands
The data of sick people in nursing homes was obtained through the two main digital databases on nursing homes, Ysis and Ons.
According to the report by the NRC, the Ysis database has recorded 629 deaths and 358 recoveries in nursing homes. The Ons database does not record any of the mortalities.
Only half of the sick elderly have been tested for coronavirus, while the rest display symptoms which closely resemble the virus. This is in line with the RIVM policy of only testing and registering serious cases.
Because of the RIVM policy, some of these cases go unregistered in RIVM’s count. A professional association for geriatric medicine called Verenso has been collecting data on coronavirus cases over the last week.
The nursing homes report the deaths of patients suspected of coronavirus to the Bureau of Statistics of the Netherlands. According to one of their reports, 2,000 people died in just one week (30 March-6 April).
This comes in the context that there is suspicion that coronavirus cases are underreported in nursing homes. Last week, half of the elderly in the dementia wing in a nursing home died from the virus.
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