The number of coronavirus infections rose by 77 percent last week, RIVM Reports. More than 200,000 new infections have been reported in the past seven days. Young people in particular are infected with the virus. Nearly half of the new infections are attributed to people between the ages of 15 and 29. The number of re-infections is also rising significantly. 13 percent of reported cases involve people who have had the virus before. As of mid-December, that percentage was 3 percent.
The explosion is attributed to the omicron variable. It spreads very quickly, but so far it has caused less serious casualties. The number of hospital admissions is still declining, although relapse is lower than in previous weeks. The number of IC recordings is also dropping, and very quickly. Last week, 112 people ended up in intensive care, a week earlier 152 people. The question is whether this will remain the case if omikron spreads more among vulnerable groups.
The clone number R of the omikron variant increased to 1.63, as estimated by RIVM.
The World Health Organization warned earlier today that half of Europeans will develop the omicron variant. The NRC writes about the statement of Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe:
According to the World Health Organization, there were 7 million Omikron variant infections in Europe in the first week of 2022, an unprecedented level of transmission at this scale, Kluge said. The Omikron variant predominates in Western Europe, but not yet in all countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Since vaccination rates in the eastern part of Europe are generally low, Kluge said he was “very concerned” about Omikron’s progress in that part of the continent: “We still have to see the full impact in countries with low vaccination rates.” For those countries, Kluge said he fears more serious diseases and large numbers of deaths. Currently, the number of deaths in Europe is fairly stable, but the number of hospitalizations is rapidly increasing.
