1963 and 1964 revolve around the recall • Van Dissel: 10 to 15 percent infections with omikron

Jaap van Dissel says the omikron variant of the coronavirus is currently responsible for 10-15% of infections. The variant should become dominant in the Netherlands within a few weeks.

He takes into account that the pressure on hospitals is increasing rapidly. “Even with a quick lockdown, we can expect over 100-150 IC admissions per day, provided omikron results in as many hospitalizations as the delta variant.” According to Van Dissel, containment was taken into account which would not begin until Christmas. But because the cabinet has already intervened, the boss of the RIVM expects the increase to be lower. According to him, a faster recall campaign can also have a positive effect.

The age distribution of hospital admissions won’t be much different for omikron than for delta, RIVM modelers calculated. In particular, people over 50 will end up in the hospital. “It shows the importance of boosting,” says Van Dissel.

Based on figures from London and Denmark, he points out that there is little reason to expect the number of hospital admissions for the omikron variant to be lower than for the Delta. The percentage of admissions is lower for the moment, but it also makes sense because the variant circulates mainly among the youngest (who get less sick), according to Van Dissel.