Dutch COVID-19 infections soar by 500% in a week

[dvernb]

Coronavirus infections in the Netherlands skyrocketed by more than 500% over the last week, the country's public health institute reported Tuesday. The surge follows the scrapping of almost all remaining lockdown restrictions and the reopening of night clubs in late June.

The weekly update showing that nearly 52,000 people in the Netherlands tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week came a day after caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized for the June 26 lockdown relaxation and called it “an error of judgment.”

Rutte backtracked Friday and reintroduced some restrictions in an attempt to rein in the soaring infection rate. Bars again have to close at midnight, while discotheques and clubs were shuttered again until at least Aug. 13.

The Netherlands, along with other European nations, is facing a rise in infections fueled by the more contagious delta variant just as governments hoped to greatly ease or eliminate remaining pandemic restrictions during the summer holiday season.

With infections rising around France, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday cranked up pressure on people to get vaccinated and said special COVID passes would be required to go into restaurants and shopping malls starting next month.

The Dutch public health institute said that of the infections that could be traced to their source, 37% happened in a hospitality venue such as a bar or club. Infections among people ages 18-24 surged by 262%, followed by a 191% rise in 25-29 year-olds.

Despite the alarming rise in confirmed cases, hospital admissions increased by a modest 11%, or 60 COVID-19 patients, over the week, the institute said. Twelve of the admissions were to intensive care units.

More than 46% of the Netherlands’ adult population is fully vaccinated, and more than 77% of the country's adults have had at least one shot. Health authorities said more than 1.3 million people would receive their first or second doses this week.

Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said Monday that the late June loosening of restrictions combined with a lack of social distancing and the delta variant “has had, of course, an accelerating effect. You can unfortunately see that with hindsight.”

Other countries in Europe are scrambling to accelerate coronavirus vaccinations in the hope of outpacing the spread of the more infectious delta variant.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/dutch-covid-19-infections-soar-by-500percent-in-a-week/ar-AAM6FWr?li=AAggNb9

 

[Makara]

just over 36,000 contracted it today in the UK including 3,500 in Scotland , the 3rd wave hit Scotland first in the UK now the rest of the UK is catching up and i reckon it's only just the start ... over 50 deaths today and the dominant strain is the Indian Variant the real danger is the Peru strain which is way more deadlier and contagious and the current vaccines do not work against it and we know the Peruvian strain is already in the UK and the really crazy thing is the UK including Scotland (devolved governments set rules for covid 19 legislation/rules) are easing restrictions to the state that we are almost fully back to normal .... it's absolutely nuts 

 

[dvernb]

Viruses evolve. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is no exception. So the emergence of variants is no surprise, and not every new genetic mutation poses a serious threat.

But in recent weeks, a growing drumbeat of news coverage has started to raise alarm about Lambda, a variant first detected in Peru late last year. The variant, initially known as C.37, has spread rapidly through parts of South America. On June 14, the World Health Organization designated it as a “variant of interest,” meaning, essentially, that experts suspect it could be more dangerous than the original strain.

Lambda’s prevalence and its mutations, which resemble those found in several other highly contagious or worrisome variants, mean that it is worth watching, scientists said. But much remains unknown, and it is not yet clear how much of a risk it poses.

“I think some of the interest is just based on the fact that there’s a new variant, and it has a new name,” said Nathaniel Landau, a microbiologist at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine who is studying the new coronavirus variants.

“But I don’t think there’s any more reason to be concerned than before we knew about this variant,” Dr. Landau added. No evidence so far suggests that Lambda will outcompete Delta, the highly transmissible variant that’s now dominating most of the world. “There’s no reason to think that this is now something worse than Delta.”

The variant contains eight notable mutations, including seven in the gene for the spike protein, found on the surface of the virus. Some of these mutations are present in other variants and might make the virus more infectious or help it evade the body’s immune response.

But big questions remain unanswered. It is not yet clear whether Lambda is more transmissible than other variants, whether it causes more severe disease or whether it renders vaccines less effective.

Full article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/08/health/lambda-variant-covid-peru.html

 

[willythecat]

I agree with you Makara.
Yes l know, l should be more worried about the French approach to this as l blimmin' live here, but as an expat, l still
fume as to what the UK are doing overall about this!
There are lots of French people here who do not want to be jabbed, as per the UK, and we are behind the UK in vacc numbers.
However, and this is where France have got it right.
You CANNOT go into shops without a facemask (the smaller ones even limit the amount of people let in).
You CANNOT travel on transport without a facemask.
You now have to carry with you at all times your vaccination certificate, whether it be on a mobile phone or a hard copy.
May seem a tad draconian, but to us now, it's just the way of life, and it works!
Also, have you ever seen the fines given out in France for non-compliance to their laws? Blimey, if and when l pop my clogs

then l'll be wearing a facemask in the old box (ha ha)

 

[Kath]

Are there any statistics to identify how many people have been hospitalised from those vast numbers? How many of the infected were not vaccinated and how many were vaccinated.  These figures are important, being infected is not the same as being gravely ill.

 

[Makara]

Are there any statistics to identify how many people have been hospitalised from those vast numbers? How many of the infected were not vaccinated and how many were vaccinated.  These figures are important, being infected is not the same as being gravely ill.

can't speak for the whole of the UK but in Scotland during the peak we had over a 1,000 in hospital and over 100 in ICU at the peak  of the 2nd wave  .... currently  we have over 500 in Hospital in Scotland and around 50 in ICU ... on wedensday Scot Gov reported that we had 62 in ICU but sadly wedenday/Thursday 19 died in Scotland and only 5 today  ... keep in mind the 3rd wave hit England 2 or 3 weeks after Scotland the number of daily cases are going down but hospitalisation is rising as is ICU patients  ... it's reckoned 80% of the deaths in Scotland have had the two vaccinations 

all i know from English data last week around 60 - 70% of all covid deaths is from people who have had their 2nd jags/jabs and it's the Delta/Indian strain that's causing the deaths we also have the Peruvian strain in the UK in small numbers and that strain cuts through the vaccines as if you haven't had it and that hospitalisations and ICU wards are starting to fill up in parts of England and Wales hence the worry 

In 2 to 3 weeks time as England catches up  on Scotland you will sadly see the death rates, hospitalisations and ICU wards fill up again .... the vaccines are not a silver bullet if the Peruvian strain manages to multiply in the UK .... we could be facing a disaster  

The Driver for the 3rd wave is football fans ... Scotland got the 3rd strain earlier than England and Wales due to Rangers fans illegally parading/marching through Glasgow after winning the league people came from throughout Scotland for the march/parade hence the spread Scotland wide then Scotland fans going down to London for the England v Scotland game  ... and the spike in England is down to England fans at the knockout rounds and at the final not social distancing or wearing masks and people almost on top of each other ... i reckon within the next week or two UK/England could hit over 100K cases daily and with the restrictions removed in masking i fear the worst ... we still have to wear mask by law ... i have to wear i visor as i can't breathe with a mask

 

[dvernb]

Where is your reference link?

Posting an opinion or thought without a reference is fine but if you post facts, numbers or statistics without any kind of reference link or proof then those facts, numbers & statistics don't mean a thing.

"all i know from English data last week around 60 - 70% of all covid deaths is from people who have had their 2nd jags/jabs and it's the Delta/Indian strain that's causing the deaths".   Please show us where this is documented.

 

[Makara]

https://fullfact.org/online/fully-vaccinated-deaths-daily-expose/

Quote
The text of the post reads: “Whilst you’ve been distracted by Hancock’s affair, PHE released a report revealing 62% of alleged Covid deaths are people who’ve been vaccinated.”

This claim comes from a longer article published by website The Daily Expose, which cites its source as a technical briefing on Covid-19 variants published by PHE on 25 June.

The article claims the briefing shows that, of the 117 Covid-19 deaths caused by the Delta variant that have occurred since 1 February, 60% of them were people who had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccines and, of this group of vaccinated people, 70% had received both doses.
the quote in bold is the telling part

The biggest impact now is Long Covid 

in early June it was just 30% double vaccinated

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/nearly-30-those-dying-delta-20812363

 

[Makara]

their is much more clearer data but it's late and i'm going to my bed 

 

[dvernb]

From your Wales online reference:

This demonstrates that getting vaccinated doesn't make it impossible for you to fall ill from the virus. No vaccine is 100% effective.

Commenting on the results, senior lecturer in epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London Deepti Gurdasani wrote on Twitter: "This doesn't tell us about level of vaccine efficacy, except it's less than 100%. Take precautions even if fully vaccinated."

One issue with the delta variant is that vaccines not appear to be as effective as against other variants until several weeks after the second dose. A single dose of a vaccine is only 33% effective against Delta Covid, according to Public Health England. Several weeks after a second dose, that figure rises to 60% for AstraZeneca and 88% for Pfizer.

However, that still means that vaccines are having a significant effect on the number of people being hospitalised or falling ill.

Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said: “Hospitalisations per case have plummeted. Vaccination is stopping severe disease. We don’t know vaccine protectiveness against the Delta variant for severe disease, but vaccines do protect more against severe disease.”

In a further sign that the vaccine rollout is working, analysis by the Guardian newspaper showed that England is also seeing a record low period for the proportion of cases that end in deaths three weeks later.

The newspaper also found that the number of deaths as a proportion of hospital admissions one week earlier is also remaining very low.

The death rate had never been lower than 10% of the number of admissions one week earlier before April, but it has since remained consistently at or below this level.

From your fullfact.org reference:

A widely shared post on social media claims that Public Health England (PHE) has released a report revealing that two thirds of Covid-19 deaths are people who have been vaccinated. This is missing important context.

The risk of death with Covid is very much smaller after vaccination, but it is not zero, and the vaccine take-up has been very high among those most at risk. Most people dying are therefore already vaccinated, because there are very few high-risk people left unvaccinated in the UK.   

The text of the post reads: “Whilst you’ve been distracted by Hancock’s affair, PHE released a report revealing 62% of alleged Covid deaths are people who’ve been vaccinated.”

This claim comes from a longer article published by website The Daily Expose, which cites its source as a technical briefing on Covid-19 variants published by PHE on 25 June.

The article claims the briefing shows that, of the 117 Covid-19 deaths caused by the Delta variant that have occurred since 1 February, 60% of them were people who had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccines and, of this group of vaccinated people, 70% had received both doses. 

These figures are roughly right. Of the 117 deaths, 3 involved people whose vaccine status was unknown, 70 were people who had received at least one dose of the vaccine (61% of the 114 known cases), and 44 were people who had not been vaccinated (39%). Fifty of the deaths (44%) were people who had received both doses. 

However, this does not mean that the vaccines do not work, or are dangerous. 

None of the current vaccines are 100% effective against Covid-19, but they do make a big difference. The same PHE briefing also reported that two doses of the vaccine are 96% effective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant. 

The UK’s vaccination programme has prioritised ensuring that the elderly and vulnerable were vaccinated first, meaning these people are also the most likely to have received their second vaccine dose. However, this group is also the most at risk from Covid-19, and no current vaccine removes all risk. 

Writing for The Guardian, statisticians Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters said that someone aged 80 who is fully vaccinated essentially is at the same risk from Covid-19 as an unvaccinated person of around 50.

The most recent vaccination figures, as of 1 July, show that 44.8 million people in the UK have received their first vaccine dose, and 33 million have received their second. 

Moderator's note: Posts that contain statements of fact or statistics require a reference link.

 

[Makara]

i never said the vaccines don't work in most cases they do ... as i've also stated the vaccine is not a silver bullet most of the people being infected have both or one jag/jab .... it's the number of people getting Long covid is the problem over 1 million people in the UK have been diagnosed with having it ..... Covid-19 attacks the organs and in some extreme cases attacks the spinal column tissue which "can" lead to paralysis in extreme cases .... it's long covid which is putting the most strain on our health services in the UK .... the people mainly being affected by long covid fall in the under 40s category  ... i have family who work in the NHS and in care homes in both Scotland & England so i have a good idea what is going on mainly in Scotland and England to a lesser degree until a story appears on yahoo (my homepage of choice for over 20 years)

in Scotland we get a daily report on how many who have been infected over the past 24 hours, how many who have died, how many who have been tested and how many percentage are reported as having contracted having Covid-19, how many are hospitalised and how many are in ICU units .... every now and again a paper will report how many are dying after having been vaccinated or the story will appear on yahoo

The current infection rate this week is around 8% 2 weeks ago it was 12% we seem to be getting on top of it in Scotland for now even though the death rate has drastically climbed  in Scotland and top UK/English scientist/health expert says the death rate could top 200 in 5 weeks .... the last time he reported on possible death rates in the UK at the start of the 2nd wave it ended up being double his daily death figures 

 

[willythecat]

For me, this is a really interesting thread seeing peoples opinions/data.
As l said before in this thread, whilst France may not have the the same amount of vacs as the UK, which is brilliant by the way,
our strategy sort of towers above the UK (sorry) in what we have to do here, ie wearing of masks in all shops, on all transport etc.etc.
But then hey, forget about all of these stats being quoted because come Monday, BOJO in his infinite wisdom has labelled it as "Freedom Day".
I can see it all now........ Most masks being removed by a lot of people who are fed up with wearing them, and who have no concept of the damage
they/this will cause.
Don't really like the guy, as l think he's pretty useless overall, but Sadiq Khan (or as l call him Sadiq Khant) does at least have a point in ensuring
that facemasks should be made compulsory on all of TFL!
Give it two to three weeks after that day though, and then let's see what all your stats say.
Hey, let's all go to Soccer Aid 2021 at the Etiad Stadium in Manchester, all are invited and no masks are required. Yep, right!
Grrrrr, it just makes my blimmin' blood boil, but enough of me ranting on.
Any thoughts?
Kind regards

 

[Makara]

For me, this is a really interesting thread seeing peoples opinions/data.
As l said before in this thread, whilst France may not have the the same amount of vacs as the UK, which is brilliant by the way,
our strategy sort of towers above the UK (sorry) in what we have to do here, ie wearing of masks in all shops, on all transport etc.etc.
But then hey, forget about all of these stats being quoted because come Monday, BOJO in his infinite wisdom has labelled it as "Freedom Day".
I can see it all now........ Most masks being removed by a lot of people who are fed up with wearing them, and who have no concept of the damage
they/this will cause.
Don't really like the guy, as l think he's pretty useless overall, but Sadiq Khan (or as l call him Sadiq Khant) does at least have a point in ensuring
that facemasks should be made compulsory on all of TFL!
Give it two to three weeks after that day though, and then let's see what all your stats say.
Hey, let's all go to Soccer Aid 2021 at the Etiad Stadium in Manchester, all are invited and no masks are required. Yep, right!
Grrrrr, it just makes my blimmin' blood boil, but enough of me ranting on.
Any thoughts?
Kind regards

masks have not been removed in Scotland and can't see it happen for the foreseeable future .... i didn't want to bring politics into this but BOJO is a clown and he will end the UK within the next year or two .... Scotland has had enough .... the big one being dragged out the EU against the wishes of 62% of Scots and the way he carries on is a vote recruiter for the end of the UK  not just in Scotland but Wales also .... Boris Johnson is a total moron and according to the media a lot of world leaders are extremely angry at him for fully opening up in the middle or beginning of a new 3rd wave ... because the UK is so heavily vaccinated the fear is a new strain could emerge that could render all vaccines obsolete 

 

[willythecat]

 Sorry Makara, wasn't trying to be, or even get political. It's just as l see it from afar, watching the English news here etc etc.
Am also in contact with my so called "family" in England, so l also get their point of view on this.
You have got to admit though, it just it beggars belief.
We have Scotland, Wales, NI, and England all quite rightly doing their own thing as they deem fit.
However, as one island, well apart from the island of Ireland (hate that term), wouldn't it be great to have a general overall plan?
Regards

 

[Makara]

 Sorry Makara, wasn't trying to be, or even get political. It's just as l see it from afar, watching the English news here etc etc.
Am also in contact with my so called "family" in England, so l also get their point of view on this.
You have got to admit though, it just it beggars belief.
We have Scotland, Wales, NI, and England all quite rightly doing their own thing as they deem fit.
However, as one island, well apart from the island of Ireland (hate that term), wouldn't it be great to have a general overall plan?
Regards

none of the devolved governments trust London to do what's best in all our interests it all stems back to brexit and how all 3 devolved governments were shut off from brexit negotiations .... the key issue is trust nobody trusts London or the Tory government

 

[Kath]

The important thing is, we have no yardstick by which to measure our progress by, it's totally new and every country is flying by the seat of it's pants.  It's by trial and error at the moment.  Nobody is to blame for failures, they are inevitable.  I for one will continue to wear my shield (I can't wear a mask).

If you choose not to wear one, well, it's your choice, but if you've read this thread, you might want to reconsider.

 

[Raven]

I don't think masks are the answer most people think they are.  I believe it can enter through your eyes also. Boris Johnson is saving the economy of England, Scotland should be thrown out of the UK because they are never happy and without money pouring in from  Westminister  the Scots would soon be in bad shape.

 

[dvernb]

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 'freedom day' ending over a year of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in England was marred on Monday by surging infections, warnings of supermarket shortages and his own forced self-isolation.

Johnson's bet that he can get one of Europe's largest economies firing again because so many people are now vaccinated marks a new chapter in the global response to the coronavirus.

If the vaccines prove effective in reducing severe illness and deaths even while infections reach record levels, Johnson's decision could offer a path out of the worst public health crisis in decades. If not, more lockdowns could loom.

But Johnson's big day was marred by "pingdemic chaos" as a National Health Service app ordered hundreds of thousands of people to self-isolate - prompting warnings supermarket shelves could soon be emptied.

"If we don’t do it now we’ve got to ask ourselves, when will we ever do it?" Johnson said just hours after he was forced to abandon a plan to dodge the 10-day quarantine requirement for himself and finance minister Rishi Sunak.

"This is the right moment but we’ve got to do it cautiously. We’ve got to remember that this virus is sadly still out there."

Britain has the seventh highest death toll in the world, 128,708, and is forecast to soon have more new infections each day than it did at the height of a second wave of the virus earlier this year. On Sunday there were 48,161 new cases.

But, outstripping European peers, 87% of Britain's adult population has had one vaccination dose, and more than 68% have had the two doses which provide fuller protection. Daily deaths, currently at around 40 per day, are just a fraction of a peak of above 1,800 seen in January.

More here:

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/pm-johnson-pleads-caution-freedom-day-arrives-england-2021-07-18/


Personally, I think he is making a very big mistake.

He apparently didn't read the beginning of this thread (Lol).

We'll know in a couple of weeks!

This may be the beginning of the end for Boris!

 

[Kath]

Sorry folks, but I have to admit that this discussion drifted into the political arena and 'off topic'.  Please folks, It's really not about politics in any way.  It's about human life and this terrible GLOBAL pandemic. Personal agendas don't really fit here.

Having read all this thread, I doubt any of us who read it will be removing our masks.