New local Covid-19 clusters have not caused spike in hospitalizations

There were 97 people being treated in Dutch hospitals for respiratory illness Covid-19, patient coordination office LCPS said on Monday. Though it was the third consecutive day where the patient total increased, the data has not shown evidence of a broader nationwide outbreak, said Ernst Kuipers, the chair of the acute care network in the Netherlands.

"We see a stable picture with small fluctuations by region and nationally,” he said. An increase in localized clusters of new SARS-CoV-2 infections, the viral infection responsible for Covid-19, was not producing an immediate strain on the healthcare system.

“The local outbreaks have so far not translated into an increase in the overall number of hospital admissions," he said. On Friday, the patient total in the Netherlands was down to 88, the lowest it had been since early March.

Monday’s patient tally included 16 people in intensive care, an increase of one, and 81 people in other hospital departments, a rise of two. Some 2,932 people have required ICU treatment for Covid-19 since late February, of which 867 died during their hospital stay, according to the latest figures from nonprofit organization NICE.

Some 1,877 people treated in the ICU were later discharged.