Dutch ICU’s now at “normal level” as Covid-19 cases in ICU nears 500

There were 507 intensive care patients from the Netherlands being treated for Covid-19 on Sunday, a decrease of 34. It was the 29th day in a row where the Netherlands showed fewer patients requiring intensive care for the coronavirus disease.

The decline meant that for the first time since the mid-March, Dutch intensive care units were operating with a more average patient load. After nearly a month of reduced pressure due to the global pandemic, Dutch hospitals have increasingly accepted more ICU patients without Covid-19. That total stood at 418 patients on Sunday.

"With this decrease, the national ICU occupancy is now at normal level," said Ernst Kuipers, the chair of the Dutch acute care network. Before the pandemic, the Netherlands staffed 1,150 ICU beds. 

About 650 were transferred out of the ICU to a different hospital nursing ward, according to preliminary data provided by NICE, a nonprofit organization which tracks the performance of intensive care units. Their data also showed that some 886 ICU patients have been released from hospital after being treated for Covid-19.

Of approximately 2,860 total Covid-19 patients who were treated in ICU, 757 have died.

Data from patient coordination office LCPS showed that 15 of the Dutch total were still being treated in German hospitals. Medical facilities in Germany stepped up to help their colleagues across the border as the Dutch ICUs became overwhelmingly busy in early April.