Extra Covid-19 measures not yet necessary: Van Dissel

Despite a spike in hospital admissions of around 50 patients per day, RIVM director and Outbreak Management Team (OMT) chair Jaap van Dissel said it is too early to predict what measures may be needed. He reminded people to follow basic rules such as staying at home and self-testing if they have symptoms, according to De Gelderlander.

“There are many uncertainties. The numbers are increasing somewhat, but that is not leading to major problems in hospitals at the moment," Van Dissel told De Gelderlander. Face masks, work from home measures and Covid access passes are not necessary for the time being, he said.

The OMT chair also stressed that, in spite of the uptick in hospitalizations, there are still very few patients in intensive care units compared to spring 2020. "We really have a better and broader basic immunity now.”

The current dominant variant, the BA5, is sometimes not picked by an initial self-test. Van Dissel advised that people with symptoms two self-tests spread out by several days. The variant also spreads slightly more quickly than previous ones.

"If the data from abroad is a good predictor, then we should be able to overcome this bump without much trouble," Van Dissel said. "But after that it is more uncertain, you don't know which variants will emerge."

He added that there would likely be another round of vaccinations in the future, which would depend on the dominant variant and available vaccines. "After two years of coronavirus, I can hardly imagine that we will be over it in a month."