Steep fall in fatal Covid-19 cases since last week; 11th-straight drop in hospitalizations

The number of new hospitalizations in the Netherlands for respiratory illness Covid-19 continued to fall on Saturday, when 63 people were admitted into medical facilities for treatment. The most accurate data so far shows a drop of 29 percent in the number of fatal cases, with 734 people dying in the past seven days including at least 24 on Saturday.

Data from the RIVM has been constantly adjusted and updated as more becomes known about the test statuses of patients in hospital care and those who have died. The data released this weekend was updated with adjustments dating back several weeks to March 22, and includes a total of 196 new known coronavirus hospital cases and 94 newly-revealed fatalities.

So far, Saturday marks the eleventh-straight day of a decline in new hospitalizations, including adjustments to data stretching back to April 1, the RIVM said on Sunday. Of those in hospital, 1,391 were being treated in an intensive care unit on Saturday, an increase of seven. The ICU figures have remained relatively stable for the past week.

March 24 was the date with the most hospitalizations, 558, and since then the number of new admitted patients dropped steadily aside from spikes on March 27 and March 31. The same could be said about fatal cases in the Netherlands. At least 158 people with coronavirus died on both March 31 and April 2, the most in any single day. Since then, the number of fatal cases has steadily declined, but continuous adjustments to data make it difficult to track daily.

Preliminary data showed that 24 people died on Saturday, and 41 more people died on Friday than the 44 which were previously reported. At least 457 people died over the Thursday-Saturday period a week ago, with preliminary data showing that 194 died in the same period this week, a drop of nearly 58 percent.

Though the 734 coronavirus patients being reported as deceased in the week ending Saturday serves as a grim reminder of the consequences of Covid-19, it was far lower than the 1,029 known fatal cases one week prior.

In the Netherlands some 25,587 have tested positive for coronavirus, an increase of 1,174. By Friday around 116 thousand tests had been administered, with anywhere from six to twelve thousand tests expected to be conducted over the weekend.