14 March 2021: The Netherlands records highest number of infections in 8 weeks…

14 March 2021: The latest figures show an increase in the number of people testing positive for the virus. In the week to 10 March on average 2613 people tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The figure is up 11% on the week. The number of hospitalizations remain stable. During the week from 6 to 12 March an average of 149 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalised each day. Also, the Netherlands is seeing a sharp increase in infections. The country has for some time recorded an average of 4,500 new infections per day, however, in the last seven days, an average of 5,121 per day has been counted by the RIVM. This is the highest number of Covid-19 infections in eight weeks. Whilst the numbers are moving in the wrong directions AstraZeneca, once again, announced more delivery delays. The company informed the European Commission that it will deliver only half of the 180 million doses promised for the second quarter. That means for Belgium fewer than half of the 4.6 million doses expected from April, at a time when the government’s vaccination roll-out strategy ought to be turning at full speed. The company had decided to move production to sites outside of the EU for deliveries into the EU. The reason: the EU can use its powers to prevent export of vaccines from the EU to third countries if it feels it is being sold short. That happened earlier this month to a shipment due to leave Italy for Australia. But the move of production outside of the EU brought its own problems. According to the company, the vaccines destined for Europe are being held up by export restrictions in the countries concerned. This situation turned into a bad joke. On display today is a windfarm in the North East Polder in Flevoland – Flevoland, The Netherlands