Over 1,000 currently in ICU's for Covid-19

A total of 1,026 people are currently being treated in Dutch hospitals' intensive care units for coronavirus Covid-19, according to figures released by foundation NICE on Monday. For 961 of these patients the coronavirus diagnosis has been confirmed. The other 65 show all the symptoms of the virus, but were not officially tested.

Since the first coronavirus diagnosis in the Netherlands on February 27, a total of 1,218 Covid-19 patients were treated in intensive care. 133 of them died. Others recovered enough to be discharged from ICU. A total of 73 ICUs in the country are currently treating at least one Covid-19 patient.

The highest number of new Covid-19 patients admitted to the ICU so far was 113 on March 25. On Saturday, 88 new patients were admitted to the ICU, on Sunday there were 62.

Most of the patients (36) currently in ICU are between the ages of 70 and 70 years. 33 are in their sixties, 19 in their fifties, and five in their forties. Three ICU patients are in their eighties, two in their thirties, and one in their twenties.

On Sunday, Jacco Wallinga of health institute RIVM said that in "the most likely scenario" there will be 2,500 Covid-19 patients in ICU by mid-April. Diederik Gommers of the association for intensive care NVIC told parliament last week that the Dutch healthcare system can likely not handle that number of patients, no matter how much more equipment is bought.

The Netherlands ordered a thousand respirators from Philips two weeks ago, Philips CEO Frans van Houten said on Op1 on Sunday. More respirators are crucial in creating more ICU beds. A hundred of these were delivered on Sunday. "The others come as soon as possible. It depend on how fast we can produce," Van Houten said.