Current Corona situation Reproduction number in the Netherlands reaches record level

Bonn/Region · The German government does not rule out paid tests for the unvaccinated and in the Netherlands, the R-value is higher than ever. Current events from Bonn and the region and further developments around the Corona pandemic.

 Government does not rule out paid tests for the unvaccinated.

Government does not rule out paid tests for the unvaccinated.

Foto: dpa/Britta Pedersen

Netherlands: Reproduction rate of Corona virus higher than ever before

In the Netherlands, the delta variant of the corona virus is spreading rapidly. The reproduction number is currently 2.17, which is the highest value since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, as the responsible Office for Health and the Environment RIVM told Parliament in The Hague on Tuesday.

The figure means that arithmetically 100 people infected 210 more people. The RIVM estimates that already 60 to 65 percent of all infections are due to the delta variant.

The number of new infections in 24 hours was recently around 8000, and it is mainly adolescents and young adults up to 29 years of age who are now being infected. However, because they are less likely to become severely ill with covid, the number of patients in hospitals is not yet increasing. The 7-day incidence is around 270 infections per 100,000 population in seven days. By comparison, this figure is currently 6.5 in Germany.

Because of the dramatic increase, the government had already reversed some relaxations on Friday. Thus discotheques and nightclubs were closed again and festivals were forbidden. These places were, according to the RIVM, the main sources of infection in the past two weeks. The government had been heavily criticized for the quick lifting of the measures on June 26. Prime Minister Mark Rutte had since apologized for this, speaking of an "error in assessment."

Government does not rule out paid tests for the unvaccinated

The German government does not rule out the possibility that the Corona tests in Germany, which have so far been free of charge, will become chargeable for the unvaccinated in the long term. We are still in a phase of convincing, in a later phase we could certainly think about it, said Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) on Tuesday after discussions with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the president of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, in Berlin. "For Germany, I don't see that happening yet, but I also don't want to rule out the possibility of getting into that situation someday.“

Merkel added that at the moment there are still groups that cannot be vaccinated, such as children or people who may have other reasons why they cannot get vaccinated. At the moment, she said, people are promoting vaccination. With measures "that are an indirect vaccination obligation," one must think carefully, she said. In the next few weeks, it is a matter of advertising, "and then we discuss further". Like the vaccination certificate in Germany, the citizen tests, which have been free of charge up to now, allow access to events, for example.

Original text: (ga)

Translation: Mareike Graepel

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