Dutch long Covid expertise centers to stay open another year

Special expertise centers for patients with long-term Covid-19 effects will remain open for at least another year. Care Minister Sophie Hermans (VVD) announced the extension in a letter to parliament. About 8.5 million euros of the original 27 million euros allocated for the centers is still available. Officials will use those funds to keep the centers running through next year.

An estimated 400,000 to 450,000 people in the Netherlands suffer long-term consequences from a coronavirus infection. Of those, 90,000 to 100,000 are severely limited in daily life. No treatment is known for long Covid.

The most common symptoms are exhaustion and cognitive impairments such as concentration loss and memory problems. Damage to the immune system can also occur.

Academic hospitals in six cities opened the centers about 18 months ago. The cities include Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Maastricht, Leiden, and Groningen. By the end of May, they had examined 1,550 adults and 350 children with persistent complaints after a Covid-19 infection. The goal is to study the disease in greater depth and research possible treatments.

The cabinet has asked the hospitals and health insurers involved to develop a proposal for maintaining care for post-Covid patients after 2027. Multiple centers could merge into one larger organization, according to a spokesperson for Minister Hermans.