GGD expects 6,000 coronavirus infections in the Netherlands

The Public Health Service GGD assumes that about 6000 people are infected with coronavirus in the Netherlands.

Coronavirus 3D model (public domain)

The director of GGD Hollands Midden, Sjaak de Gouw, based the estimate on the number of positive tests that have been recorded so far by RIVM, 959. “This virus has about the same distribution as the flu, so if there are 959 positive cases at the top part of that pyramid, then the entire pyramid contains about 6,000 infections,” de Gouw said.

The fact that the figure is much higher than that reported by RIVM yesterday is due to the fact that people with mild complaints have not been tested since Thursday. However, the Dutch officials claim there is no reason to panic.

“The image is that the virus roams freely, but it is actually very limited. If you compare it to Italy, you see very different numbers”.

De Gouw referred also to the requests from medical specialists to shut down schools by calling them “strange”. “The chance of infection in a primary school is 0.003 percent and even as low as 0.0003 percent if everyone sticks tightly to hygiene rules. The odds of getting infected is so small that is not really justified to close down the schools right now.”