Covid-19 patients in ICU falls by nearly half since peak; Non-Covid care expanded

There were 735 patients from the Netherlands in intensive care on Friday receiving treatment for Covid-19, a decline of over 48 percent since April 9, when 1,417 people were in ICU. The total number of patients, the lowest since March 24, on Friday was 48 fewer than a day earlier, the 20th straight daily decline.

To date, some 2,806 Covid-19 patients have been treated in ICU, of which 710 have died. Another 660 were released, and 652 were transferred to another department, according to nonprofit organization NICE.

"We are now of the opinion that we needed to really start taking up non-COVID care again. The number of non-COVID patients shows that this is already happening again," said Ernst Kuipers, the head of the acute care network in the Netherlands. There are 426 patients in the country receiving treatment in ICU for something other than Covid-19.

"That process will accelerate in the near future because family doctors will see and refer more patients again, and hospitals will again be able to treat more non-COVID patients," Kuipers said.

German hospitals were still treating 28 of the 735 intensive care patients from the Netherlands.