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Diederik Gommers, Chairman of the Association of Dutch Intensive Care Physicians (archive image)
Photo: Koen Laureij / picture alliance / PRO SHOTS
The already tense corona situation in the Dutch hospitals is getting worse.
If the number of infections does not go down quickly, there is a threat of "Code Schwarz" next week, said the chairman of the Association of Intensive Care Physicians, Diederik Gommers, on the radio.
In the case of “Code Schwarz”, a triage commission in hospitals has to decide which patients should still be helped.
Several hospitals in the country are so overcrowded with Covid patients that the performance limit has been reached, said Gommers.
According to the hospitals, many operations are already being canceled, including cancer and heart interventions.
The state of emergency in hospitals had not yet existed during the corona pandemic.
Nevertheless, the government continues to loosen the corona measures.
From Wednesday, the curfew will be lifted and terraces of restaurants and shops will be allowed to reopen under certain conditions.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte spoke of an "acceptable risk".
Due to the increasing number of vaccinations, a decrease in infections is expected at the beginning of May.
The Federal Government classified the Netherlands as a high incidence area at the beginning of April.
There are currently around 280 corona infections per week for every 100,000 inhabitants.
In Germany, this seven-day incidence is around 164 for comparison.
fek / dpa
