Further 118 coronavirus patients admitted to ICU's in the Netherlands

The availability of beds in intensive care units at Dutch hospitals fell further on Friday, with 873 placements in ICUs now occupied by Covid-19 patients. There was an increase of about 15.5 percent from Thursday's total, with 118 more patients admitted into an ICU in the 24-hour period.

About 1,815 patients were hospitalized in the past week after testing positive for coronavirus. The Netherlands currently has about 1,150 spaces for treating patients in an ICU. Normally, about half of those beds are available, but more space was made by eliminating elective surgeries.

Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health told parliament on Thursday that the number of ICU beds in the Netherlands can be scaled up to 1,600 by April 1st. That is exactly enough to cope with the expected 1,100 coronavirus patients and 500 other patients to need intensive care next week.

On Friday NRC reported that the national coordinator for counterterrorism and security NCTV has been warning the government about the consequences of a pandemic since 2016. Those warnings included the fact that the country does not have enough ICU beds. 

Some 8,603 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the Netherlands since the end of February, of which 546 patients have died. About 2,500 have required treatment in a hospital at some point during there illness.