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The closure of schools has led to little change in the control of the coronavirus. That said RIVM chief Jaap van Dissel on Wednesday during a technical meeting with the House of Representatives.
According to Van Dissel, children hardly infect each other and the older age groups, and there are few confirmed cases in the age group under the age of twenty.
Several studies have been conducted in recent weeks on the COVID-19 virus and children. From this emerges a consistent picture that children are likely to play a minor role in the spread of the virus. This image is also emerging in other countries.
0.7 percent of the reported cases of COVID-19 are under the age of twenty, while this group represents 22 percent of the Dutch population. In a study of antibodies against the virus in the blood, it appears that this age group occurred in 1 percent of cases. This is 4.2 percent for people over the age of twenty.
The transfer is made mainly between people of the same age.
Experts currently see that there is almost no transmission between children and adults. Most transmission of the virus occurs between people of the same age. This occurs mainly in the age groups between forty and eighty years.
Children are also hardly ever the source of infection within a family. Parents are more likely to infect children than vice versa. Also, symptoms in children are generally milder.
The RIVM image showing which age groups infect each other (Photo: RIVM)
Children can partially return to primary school starting May 11.
On Tuesday night, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that elementary school children could be allowed to go to school again starting May 11. Starting April 28, outdoor sports are again allowed for the age group up to twelve years. Children between the ages of twelve and eighteen can also exercise outdoors, but they must maintain a distance of 1.5 meters.
On Tuesday, Rutte emphasized that closing primary schools was not initially a cabinet election, but that this happened after increased social pressure.
Van Dissel added that children still cannot visit grandparents. “The rules remain the same for that.”
The measures have prevented a large number of IC withdrawals
Van Dissel showed with various charts the effect of the measures taken and that the decline has generally started.
It was surprising that RIVM calculated the number of intensive care admissions that would have been required if no action had been taken. That equates to an estimated 23,354 cases, according to Van Dissel. “That could never have been done,” added the RIVM chief. “The measures have prevented 90 percent of CI withdrawals for COVID-19.”
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