The situation around coronavirus in nursing homes in the Netherlands has significantly improved as the national vaccination campaign starts to take effect.

Ever since the beginning of the campaign, the number of positive tests among residents and employees of nursing homes has been rapidly decreasing, reports NU.nl.

On January 19 — one day after some of the nursing home residents got their first injection — infections had been identified at almost 800 locations. Five weeks later, this number dropped by almost a half, with infections being present in a little over 450 locations. 

Good news from nursing homes

The daily number of infections and the number of corona-related deaths in Dutch nursing homes has also been going down.

Residents and employees have been getting the Pfizer vaccine. Each person gets two doses, with the second dose following approximately three to six weeks after the first one. 

This means that by now, a considerable part of this target group has already been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Figures published by the RIVM indicate that vaccination is responsible for the improvements in nursing homes. 

Infections in the remaining population unchanged

The number of new infections among the other groups of the population remains unchanged. A full update on the number of coronavirus infections in the past week will be available this afternoon. 

Rising infection rates in the whole population, the high reproduction number (R number) and the presence of various coronavirus strains remain a reason for concern. However, the relaxation of some of the current measures is on the table. 

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