RIVM has released the latest numbers regarding coronavirus in the Netherlands, with the small country now passing 40,000 infections. Yet, the daily infection, hospitalization and mortality rate continue their slow decline.
The most recent data shows that there have now been 40,236 infections in the Netherlands, after a further 445 were identified in the past 24 hours.
Sadly, a further 94 people have died in the same period, bringing the total Dutch mortality rate to 4,987.
A total of 10,951 people have been hospitalized for coronavirus since the outbreak, with a further 97 added in the past day.
Too early for an exit strategy
The Netherlands has been under an ‘intelligent lockdown’ for the past six weeks. However, RIVM experts say that it is too early to create a concrete plan to emerge.
“That is really more complex than highlighting a strategy and saying that it is the right one,” says the head of infectious disease control at RIVM, Jaap van Dissel, and Jacco Wallinga, responsible for the calculation models.
One plan could be to increase testing and do more contact tracing of infected people. But Van Dissel warns that it is a complicated virus, so contact tracing may not be enough. “We are busy with that. For example, you are trying to calculate the consequences if you take certain measures or leave them again. But there are uncertainties in that.”
People are filling the shopping streets
At the start of the lockdown, the shopping streets in the Netherlands only had around 25% of the people they would normally have. Now, that number is around 40%, according to research agency Locatus.
The data is taken from shopping streets in ten major Dutch cities using technology that counts the number of passing mobile phones. But the project leader Gert-Jan Slob told NOS that these numbers are not too much of a problem. “As long as we are at 40% of the numbers before the outbreak, and if people stick to the rules.”
However, in some shopping streets, that’s not as easy as it seems: the Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam and the Beurstraverse in Rotterdam are two examples. Slob warns that measures must be taken there to ensure social distancing measures can be followed.
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Feature Image: Canva/Dutch Review
