COVID-19 in the Netherlands: A three-phase analysis

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented global challenges in the health, economy, society, and political sector for the past three years. For the Netherlands, the dynamic nature of the pandemic can be divided into three phases. The initial phase exclusively relied on non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). The second phase was characterized by the introduction of vaccines alongside the continuation of stringent NPIs. Finally, the third phase marks the post-vaccine and booster stage, characterized by minimal or absent NPIs. This paper examines the interplay between the mitigation policies, the vaccination rollout, health outcomes, and economic indicators in the Netherlands in these three phases.

Methods

This analysis used national real-time data on COVID-19-related health outcomes, health service utilization, vaccination rollout, and economic indicators. Our descriptive analysis applied the “Categorising Policy & Technology Interventions (CPTI)” framework.

Results

The number of daily deaths, hospital admission and ICU admission experienced the highest peak in the first phase, while the number of daily cases first spiked in the third phase. The containment measures reached a very significant level twice, resulting in a full lockdown twice. In the first two phases, the peak in stringency of the CPTI containment category was parallel with the peaks in health outcomes. Conversely, in the third phase, the containment measures were scaled down prior to the peak in daily cases.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that the Dutch three-phased COVID-19 mitigation strategy managed to fulfil its aim and protect vulnerable individuals, prevent healthcare institutions from overload, and move from the pandemic to the endemic phase.