According to the GGD, the high infection rates are due to the much more contagious Omikron variant. As it stands, the chance of hospitalization with Omikron is lower than with previous corona variants. So what do the infection numbers say then?
Van Broekhoven: “If you get so many sick people in the near future, you can wonder what that means socially. There are more and more people who not only become infected, but also entire families who have to be quarantined. As a result, those people cannot be active. in the labor market. Who will then take care of, for example, transport or waste collection?”
“It has major consequences,” says Van Broekhoven:
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New years eve
The turn of the year has pushed the infection figures further up, according to the GGD. “There have been quite a few parties, where infections have also arisen. At parties with 300 people, you see that the number of infections increases very quickly.”
Yet Van Broekhoven does not want to point to the younger generations. “You should not differentiate it in that way. Sometimes it is that group and other times that group. It is also human nature and I can well imagine the impatience about corona.”
In Luttenberg, a large number of infections can be traced back to a New Year’s Eve party. “About thirty of the sixty people who were at the party have tested positive,” says one of the young people, who wishes to remain anonymous, and was present at the party. “We all had to hand over a negative self-test beforehand, so we had hoped that we would be safe with that. I also think that almost everyone has been vaccinated and some had already had their booster shot.”
Doubts about booster vaccination
And so Van Broekhoven’s motto is: boost, boost and boost again. “Boosting is by definition an important factor that ensures that you become less infected and less ill. We are now doing more than 60,000 vaccinations a week in Twente, so things are going very fast.”
The deputy director of the GGD notices that younger generations in particular still have doubts about taking a booster. “I can imagine those doubts, that’s why we also created the doubt telephone. But if we want to be able to function as a society again immediately, a booster shot and then perhaps a second booster shot will be necessary. Also for young, healthy people .”
We are now doing more than 60,000 vaccinations a week in Twente, so it’s going very fast
Booster shot without an appointment
The GGD Twente also wants to start ‘injecting without an appointment’ for a booster vaccination in a week or two. You can then walk into the vaccination location without an appointment. “We must all work together to ensure that as many people as possible are boosted. In a week and a half to two weeks we will also have more space. Then the major mass vaccination has been completed and we can inject without an appointment,” says Van Broekhoven.
It is still unclear whether and when the GGD in IJsselland will boost without an appointment.
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