Covid-19: ICU patients below 600 since March 23

A total of 584 patients from the Netherlands were being treated for Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, in intensive care units on Thursday. That was a decrease of 42 compared to Wednesday, and the 26th straight day of decrease, the patient coordination office LCPS reported on Thursday.

"The rate of decrease in intensive care admissions is higher than in the past 5 days," Ernst Kuipers of the National Network for Acute Care said. The LCPS originally expected that ICUs would be treating 500 Covid-19 patients on March 8th. That will likely not be reached, Kuipers said. "But we are moving in that direction."

In addition to the coronavirus patients, ICUs in the Netherlands were also treating 440 patients with other health problems, 43 more than on Wednesday. As the need for coronavirus related care decreases, hospitals in the Netherlands are providing more and more "regular" care. 

Of the 584 Netherlands Covid-19 patients in ICU, 566 were being treated in the Netherlands and 18 in Germany on Thursday. 

Since the first coronavirus diagnosis in the Netherlands at the end of February, Covid-19 has landed a total of 2,839 patients in ICU, according to figures from foundation NICE. 818 of them have recovered and were discharged. 668 were transferred out of ICU and to other hospital wards. And 743 patients died in ICU.