Nearly 3,000 with coronavirus still in hospital, including 1,400 in ICU
Hospitals in the Netherlands were actively treating 4,284 people diagnosed with coronavirus as of Tuesday afternoon. It includes 1,424 being treated in intensive care for Covid-19, and 2,860 being cared for in other departments. It includes those who have been released from ICU but were not discharged from their medical facility.
"There is a decrease in the inflow [of patients] and an increase in the outflow," said Professor Ernst Kuipers. The Erasmus Medical Center chair was speaking on behalf of LCPS, the new office coordinating the distribution of intensive care patients in the Netherlands.
Fifteen more patients were admitted into ICU since Monday afternoon, the fifth straight daily decline. Some 82 were admitted on Thursday, and 24 on Monday. However, the LCPS does not have precise figures, and would not say if more patients were discharged than admitted. The organization thought it was likely that the country's first real-time system to track ICU bed space at all hospitals in the Netherlands would be tested next week, with most hospital networks having already integrated with the new portal.
While healthcare officials are positive about the drop in daily ICU admissions, they are concerned that the number of ICU patients could rise to a peak of 1,700 in the near future. Even with 46 ICU patients currently being treated in Germany, the continued entrance of Covid-19 patients is likely to place ongoing strain on the healthcare system. Overall, the German healthcare system is treating over a hundred patients who were diagnosed with coronavirus in the Netherlands.
Since Sunday at least 260 people with coronavirus were admitted into hospital. In total, 7,427 people have been admitted in connection with the pandemic. Over three thousand people have either been released from a medical center or have died in hospital.
Of the 19,580 people who tested positive for the virus, 2,101 later died. The Netherlands has tested 90,614 people for the virus since the last week of Feburary.