Covid-19 hospital total drops further; Week's coronavirus total remains flat

For the twelfth consecutive day, there was no measurable rise in the total number of patients being treated in Dutch hospitals for Covid-19. At the same time, 508 more people were diagnosed with a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection, public health agency RIVM said on Sunday. It brought the Monday-Sunday total up to 3,586, slightly higher than last week's 3,552.

There were 33 people in intensive care for the coronavirus disease on Sunday, a decrease of one compared to Saturday, and 94 outside of the ICU, a reduction of two, according to patient coordination office LCPS.

"The decline in the number of COVID patients in both the ICU and the clinic continues unchanged," said Ernst Kuipers, the head of the Dutch acute care providers network. "The overall ICU occupancy also remains very low," he said. Previously, he mentioned that when expressing caution over the slow restart of normal healthcare after the entire medical system ground to a halt during the peak of the first wave of coronavirus cases.

On Friday, Dutch healthcare authority NZa said medical care had returned to pre-coronavirus levels. While referrals and hospital treatments returned to the level seen before the pandemic hit, the 800 thousand fewer referrals during the first six months of the crisis means that many health problems were cast aside to be dealt with later.

 "For some of these people, this has led to health damage, such as patients with cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders. We are very concerned about this. We therefore want to urge people to go to their GP if they have complaints," NZa chairman Marian Kaljouw said.

Fourteen people were admitted to hospitals from Thursday through Saturday for Covid-19 complaints, with two people moved into intensive care, according to the RIVM. The nonprofit organization NICE said that 3,029 people in the Netherlands needed treatment in an ICU for the coronavirus disease since the end of February, with 882 dying during their battle with the illness, and 1,967 eventually recovering well enough to be discharged from the hospital.