News | RIVM

Reminders for booster jab and repeat vaccination against COVID-19

Adults who have not yet had a booster jab or repeat vaccination against COVID-19 will receive a reminder letter from RIVM, starting Friday 8 July 2022.

SARS-CoV-2 infections rising less rapidly

39,283 positive COVID-19 tests were reported in the Netherlands last week*. That is an increase of 15% compared to the week before that. This means that the number of reported infections is still rising, but not as rapidly as in the previous weeks.

Operations postponed due to pandemic result in 320,000 healthy life years lost

The COVID-19 pandemic caused over 305,000 operations to be postponed in 2020 and 2021 in the Netherlands.

Participation in National Immunisation Programme shows slight decrease

Participation in the National Immunisation Programme has fallen slightly, showing a decrease of 1 to 2 percentage points.

Pressure drainage can be a cost-effective technology to reduce CO2 emissions in peatland areas

Pressure drainage can in some cases help to reduce CO2 emissions in peatland areas. This intervention is very expensive and only cost-effective when it sufficiently reduces CO2 emissions.

Rapid developments in modern biotechnology are a challenge for risk assessment

Due to developments in modern biotechnology, such as genome editing, synthetic biology and regulation of gene expression, many new applications are expected in the next ten years.

Bacteriophages: insufficient understanding of phage treatment of human infections

Bacteriophages are viruses that can kill bacteria. The question is whether bacteriophages can be used to treat infections in humans.

National Action Plan for sexual health

The Dutch National Action Plan for STI, HIV and sexual health describes the most important goals for the next five years.

Greenhouse gas emissions slightly down in 2017

Despite the growth of the economy, greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands in 2017 were1 percent lower than in the previous year.

Addictive nicotine and harmful substances also present in heated tobacco

Heated tobacco products are newly available on the market. An example of such a product is the heatstick which is heated with an iQOS, a device that looks like an e-cigarette.