Northern provinces scaling down regular care as Covid infections rise

Hospital in the Netherlands' northern provinces are starting to scale down regular care again as the number of coronavirus patients rise. Plannable care was only slowly restarted a month ago. Now hip-, knee- and other scheduled surgeries are being postponed again, RTV Noord reports. 

According to the local acute care network AZZN, the pressure on healthcare in northern Netherlands is great at the moment, and will only increase in the coming weeks. At the moment, Noord-Nederland is getting about 180 new infections per 100 thousand inhabitants every week. The province of Groningen is even seeing 214 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, higher than the national average, according to the broadcaster.

New coronavirus patients from Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe who need hospital care can still be admitted to a hospital in the region, but the AZZN is not certain how long this will last. According to the network, patients are currently being transferred regularly in the region "to distribute the pressure on hospitals evenly".