Coronavirus cases up 36% from last week; More Covid-19 patients in ICU

The number of coronavirus infections this week rose to 3,276 on Friday, an increase of 36 percent compared to the previous week. There was also a rise in Covid-19 patients being treated in intensive care, with hospitals having the highest acute care patient total since June 26.

Early data released on Friday by health agency RIVM showed that another 636 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus. It put the Netherlands on track for its sixth straight weekly increase in the number of known infections, which had fallen steadily and rapidly since April 12.

The rise in infections was also 850 percent higher than from Monday, June 29 through Friday, July 3, when just 342 tested positive for the virus. "The overview is consistent with the recent development of a gradual increase in the number of COVID patients in hospitals. The number of patients in the ICUs has doubled in the last two weeks," said Ernst Kuipers, the head of the Dutch acute care providers network.

There were 38 people being treated for the coronavirus disease in intensive care on Friday, an increase of seven. Outside of the ICU, hospitals were treating 120 others, a decrease of seven, according to patient coordination office LCPS.

For the three-day period from Tuesday through Thursday, 26 more people were admitted to Dutch hospitals with the disease, according to the RIVM. Nine people were also moved into intensive care during that time.

To date, 2,989 people in the Netherlands have been treated in intensive care for Covid-19. That includes 872 people who died while in the ICU, and 1,922 who were treated and released from the hospital.