AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The coronavirus mutation first discovered in Great Britain caused half of all new infections in the Netherlands on January 26, Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said Monday.
Last week, health authorities said the new, more contagious variant was responsible for about a third of all new infections in the Netherlands.
The ‘British mutation’ turned out to be almost 50% more contagious than the older variant, based on calculations up to 14 January, De Jonge wrote in a letter to parliament.
The Dutch government has repeatedly warned that new mutations could trigger a new wave of infections in the coming weeks, despite a steady decline in the number of COVID-19 cases since the beginning of this year.
To stop the spread of new mutations, a curfew was added to an already wide lockdown last week.
But as a first step toward easing measures, the government decided on Sunday to reopen primary schools from next week, as young children continued to play a marginal role in the transmission of the disease.
Dutch media reported on Monday that the government is also considering scrapping the curfew early next week.
On Monday, the number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands fell to the lowest level in 4 months, at 3,280.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, almost 1 million coronavirus infections have been reported in the Netherlands, with more than 14,000 deaths.
Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Catherine Evans and Giles Elgood