Coronavirus: Cabinet is still waiting with new measures, otherwise complete lockdown

Sinterklaas goes digital in Hillegom

The Sinterklaasintocht in Hillegom will be completely online this year. The organizing committee has looked for possibilities to travel with the Saint through the streets of Hillegom, but this is not possible due to the corona measures. In order not to let the arrival of the Saint pass by unnoticed, the children can watch the internet.

Mayor Arie van Erk will welcome Sinterklaas in Hillegom on November 14. The Hillegomse Sinterklaas-Nieuws will show the preparations daily in the week prior to the entry.

Cabinet is still waiting with new measures against corona virus

The cabinet wants to await the infection figures for the next few days before making a final decision about possible new measures against the corona virus. The number of positive tests is now around 10,000 per day.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the most involved ministers spoke again at the Catshuis on Sunday with experts including Jaap van Dissel of the RIVM. They met informally for more than two hours at the prime minister’s residence.

It has been two weeks on Tuesday since the cabinet announced a partial lockdown. Since then, the number of infections has risen rapidly. If the infection rate does not decrease, additional steps will be required. All scenarios for this are on the table, Rutte said on Friday.

But possible effects of the partial lockdown can only be seen during this week, according to the government. The Prime Minister also pointed out on Friday that the first full day the new measures were in effect was two days after the announcement.

Sources in The Hague: complete lockdown if figures do not level off

The Netherlands will probably go into a complete lockdown if the number of corona infections does not level off next week. Sources report this to De Telegraaf.

But for the time being, hope can be drawn from the latest virus figures, it sounds. The number of infections is still increasing, but no longer exponentially. According to sources, that could indicate that a leveling off is imminent. “We are now really at a crossroads”, an initiate points out the situation.

The rulings follow after a new Catshuis meeting on Sunday in which nine ministers were present, as well as the RIVM. The government now wants to see whether the leveling off of the corona figures will actually take place. According to sources, a new press conference on Tuesday has not yet been booked.

32 more corona patients in hospital, 490 on ICUs

Between Saturday and Sunday afternoon, the number of corona patients in hospitals increased by 32. This means that the total number of infected people currently being treated in a hospital has risen to 2,147, reports the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS).

There are now 490 corona patients in intensive care, 11 less than the day before. That includes two patients who are in Germany. In addition, there are 419 other patients on the ICs, 12 fewer than Saturday.

10,211 new cases were reported

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has registered 10,211 positive corona tests. This daily figure probably gives a distorted picture, because part of the figures were missing on Saturday. That data has been added to Sunday’s report, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) explained earlier.

It is unknown how many of the infections reported on Sunday actually belong to Saturday’s daily figures. Due to ICT problems at the GGDs, the figures were incomplete on Saturday. The RIVM then reported 8669 positive test results, a number that a day later was adjusted slightly to 8664. In reality there were more. A very small part of the reports may not yet have been processed, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport said on Sunday.

‘Don’t come to the De Horsten estate’

According to the police, it is very busy on the De Horsten estate in Wassenaar. The police therefore calls not to come to the estate. Despite the covid measures, De Horsten is well attended. Be sensible and stay at home, ‘the police wrote on Twitter.

According to a spokesman for the Forestry Commission, it is less busy in the woods on Sunday than Saturday and previous weekends. “The rangers are satisfied.”

‘Figures are higher on Sunday’

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) will publish new figures on the development of the corona virus in the Netherlands on Sunday afternoon. Due to ICT problems at the GGDs, the figures were incomplete on Saturday. The RIVM reported 8,669 positive test results. In reality there were more.

Data that was missing will be added to the figures released by RIVM on Sunday. These will therefore also give a distorted picture, but will turn out higher than would have been the case without the computer problems. On Friday, the RIVM registered 9996 positive tests. That number was initially slightly higher at 10,007, but was corrected on Saturday.

Coronakaart

How many infections were there in your municipality? On our corona dashboard you can see, among other things, the current risk level of your region and the daily hospital admissions.

Demonstration against corona measures on Malieveld

Hundreds of people gathered on Saturday at the Malieveld in The Hague to demonstrate against the temporary corona speed law and the measures. The organization called on the demonstrators to keep their distance from each other. Some people responded to this.

Members of Parliament were called upon to vote against ‘the most draconian law ever’. Next week, the senate will consider the corona law that will replace the local emergency ordinances. The law gives the corona measures a legal basis.

There was a lot of police on and around the Malieveld. The demonstration ended around 7 p.m. with a minute of silence ‘for freedom’.

Figures about coronavirus incomplete due to ICT problem

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) published incomplete corona figures on Saturday. The GGD was struggling with an ICT problem, as a result of which some of the data about the number of new infections was missing, a spokeswoman for GGD GHOR Nederland said. ‘It was a malfunction between two systems that need to communicate with each other. This created a backlog. The RIVM cannot do anything about this’, she emphasizes. “We expect it to be completely resolved tomorrow, but there may still be some overflow to Monday,” she says. “In any case, it will be arranged before the weekly figures come out on Tuesday.” GGD GHOR hopes it was a one-time problem.

To date, the RIVM has processed 8,669 reports of positive test results. That number therefore gives a distorted picture. A spokesperson for the ministry says that the missing figures will be processed in the figures that will be released on Sunday. Then the number of reported new infections will most likely be a lot higher. “The average of the figures for today and tomorrow will give a more accurate picture,” said the ministry. It is unclear what exactly happened with the RIVM computer systems.

The reports that have already been processed include 55 deaths of people who were infected with the virus. Although the numbers are not yet complete, that number is higher than Friday, when 47 deaths were registered. This does not mean that all these people died in one day, reports of deaths are often not passed on until a little later.

On Friday, the RIVM reported 10,007 new infections, but that number has been corrected slightly and now comes to 9996. The limit of 10,000 reported positive tests in one day has therefore not yet been passed.

42 new corona patients admitted

Hospitals admitted 42 corona patients Friday to Saturday. This means that the total number of infected people currently being treated in a hospital has risen to 2115, reports the National Coordination Center for Patient Dispersion (LCPS). Of these, 501 are in intensive care, 29 more than Friday.

The total occupancy at the ICs is 932. The nursing wards have also admitted 13 corona patients in the past 24 hours. In the past 24 hours, 40 people have been moved to hospitals in other parts of the country, two of them to Germany.

‘Doubts about the reliability of infrared thermometers’

The reliability of infrared thermometers that companies, shops and restaurants currently use a lot because of the corona virus is being questioned. Experts say the devices provide a false sense of security because they don’t stop people with an elevated body temperature of 38 degrees. This is reported by consumer program Kassa (BNNVARA), which has done a random check together with the VU University.

A student from the thermophysiology department of the VU was deployed to test the commonly used thermometers for the TV program. By wearing thermal clothing and cycling very hard, her body temperature was 38 degrees. She could see this on a sensor she wore during the test.

Together with the student, the makers of Kassa visited three locations where different infrared measuring systems are located at the entrance. The temperature was measured by the tear duct through a camera, through the wrist and forehead. None of these systems indicated the correct temperature. They indicated 1.5 to almost 2 degrees too low compared to the internal body temperature that according to the scientists you should take as a starting point to determine whether someone has an elevation or a fever.

‘Mouth caps rules hospitals are confusing and unsafe’

While the cabinet is working on a national duty to mask public buildings, hospitals still lack unambiguous rules. That is ‘confusing and unsafe’, according to healthcare unions, professional organizations of healthcare providers and the Patient Federation.

They are calling on hospital administrators to tighten guidelines for the use of medical mouth-nose masks. In principle, they should be used continuously by hospital staff, the organizations say. Exceptions should only be possible if healthcare professionals themselves consider it necessary and responsible. In current policy, it depends on the situation whether hospital staff should wear a mouth mask.

‘We meet requirements’, commercial test streets from the region respond

The Healthcare and Youth Inspectorate (IGJ) advises people to be properly informed about commercial corona test locations. For example, you have to check whether a doctor is involved. The commercial test lanes in our region say they meet these requirements.

Commercial test streets contribute to the fight against the corona virus, according to the IGJ, but as a customer you cannot ‘automatically assume’ that they are all equally reliable. The inspection currently sees test locations in many places in the country emerging where people outside the GGD can have themselves tested for the corona virus, usually with a rapid test.

Cry for help HMC: ‘Mop with the tap open’

‘We are in the middle of a tsunami of corona patients and ambulances are driving around with patients because they can no longer accommodate them in the region,’ says Ingrid Wolf, chairman of the board of Haaglanden Medical Center (HMC) against the AD. Wolf raises the alarm about the completely hidden shelter for corona patients and calls on everyone with a care background to come and help in hospitals, nursing and care homes and home care.

According to the top woman, the HMC is working with all the power to accommodate the large numbers of people with corona. In addition, acute care must also continue, but according to Wolf, that combination is mopping with the tap open.

“We are receiving more patients and have fewer staff than during the first wave,” the AD quotes. “We had to close the Emergency Department at the Westeinde location all afternoon today for people with corona, who may need to be treated in the IC.”

Do you want to know what happened on Friday? Read our live blog here.