Rising Covid infections could lead to local lockdowns: Kuipers

Chair of the National Network for Acute Care (LNAZ) Ernst Kuipers said to the AD that imposing lockdowns at the local level "may be necessary" to combat the coronavirus pandemic in the Netherlands.

Kuipers warned that around 1.8 million people in the Netherlands have not been vaccinated against Covid-19, which could "easily lead to high infection numbers and hospital admissions" on a local scale.

"As a result, it may be necessary to set local lockdowns on the basis of the infection and vaccination rate, as is currently the case in Staphorst," Kuipers said. Staphorst, like several other municipalities in the Bible Belt, has a relatively low vaccination rate.

The ICU bed coordinator has been watching the rising coronavirus figures with suspicion. "In the Netherlands, the number of hospital admissions has tripled in three weeks," Kuipers said. "In the United Kingdom, you still see high numbers of infections and hospital admissions. That can happen here too," Kuipers cautioned.