Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Exhausted healthcare worker
Exhausted healthcare worker - Credit: SimpleFoto / DepositPhotos - License: DepositPhotos
Health
British variant
Coronavirus
Covid-19
lockdownn
healthcare system
Saturday, January 16, 2021 - 16:30
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Could the British variant be more widespread in The Netherlands than currently assumed?

Just over 200 cases of the British variant of the coronavirus have now been diagnosed in the Netherlands. The public health agency RIVM confirmed this in an article by AD. A week ago, the tally was still at 96 cases. It is feared that the British variant is much more contagious than the existing variant of the coronavirus.

However, a link to the new variant has only been made in a small proportion of the infections found. It is thus likely that the British variant has already spread more widely in the Netherlands than currently assumed. Experts right now think that the mutated variant caused between 1.5 percent (for the Netherlands as a whole) and 5 percent (for certain regions) of coronavirus cases. 

Meanwhile, the variant coming from South Africa has so far only been diagnosed once in the Netherlands. New strains have also surfaced in Brazil and Japan. However, Dutch health experts have not yet discovered those in the country.

Hospitals

The appearance of the British is cause for concern. Additional measures seem inevitable, experts say. Director of the public health agency RIVM Jaap van Dissel, head of the Network for Acute Care Erns Kuipers, fear that the healthcare system will become overwhelmed if the British variant quickly gains ground. 

Kuipers anticipates that pressure on the healthcare system will reach a new peak in March. According to him, that peak could be just as high as during the height of the first wave at the end of March last year. He calls for additional measures. 


 

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Dutch students less interested in German studies; Spanish gaining popularity
  • Women's prison guard suspected of sexual abuse
  • Mondriaan painting sold for $315,000 in New York
  • Netherlands teaming up with Germany, Denmark for more offshore wind farms
  • Satanic pedophile network tales cost conspiracy theorists €215,000 in damages
  • Rutte's lack of transparency a pattern, opposition says in deleted texts debate

Top stories

  • Storm warning intensified: Code orange alert issued for three Dutch provinces
  • Cabinet cutting €2.2 billion from climate, development funds to push into Defense: report
  • PM Rutte's deleted texts can't be recovered; Parliamentary debate today
  • Thunderstorms in Netherlands on Thursday: Code Yellow
  • More substantial minimum wage increase set for next year: Report
  • Labor strike to shut The Hague public transportation on June 2

© 2012-2022, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content