RIVM: 4,996 coronavirus infections; Covid-19 patients top 1,000

Data released by public health agency RIVM on Wednesday showed an increase of nearly 5,000 coronavirus infections, as the number of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 topped a thousand for the first time since May 23. The increase in current hospital admissions for the disease has been substantial, rising by 46 percent in just seven days,

Dutch hospitals were treating 1,021 people for Covid-19 on Wednesday, an increase of 46 over the previous day, data from patient coordination office LCPS showed. It met the predicted estimate acute care specialist Ernst Kuipers released ten days ago, which he revised at the beginning of the week.

A total of 210 patients were being treated in intensive care, an increase of 20, and the remaining 811 were being cared for outside of an ICU, an increase of 26.

The 4,996 new infections set another new daily record, beating Tuesday's total by ten percent, and last Wednesday's total by 38 percent. The previous record of 4,581 was set just two days ago. A new high mark has been established 16 times over the past 22 days.

As of Monday, 14,125 new infections of the novel coronavirus have been made public by the RIVM. That is 53 percent more than the previous Monday-Wednesday period.

Nearly 150 thousand people in the Netherlands have tested positive for a SARS-CoV-2 infection since the end of February. Wednesday's total included 464 in Amsterdam, 329 in Rotterdam, and 250 in The Hague. Amsterdam and Rotterdam showed increases over last week of 23 percent and 27 percent, respectively, while The Hague showed a very slight gain.

The RIVM also disclosed 36 more deaths linked to Covid-19, which pushed the total number of fatal cases in the Netherlands to 6,518. An additional 63 hospitalizations were also reported to the agency as being tied to the coronavirus disease, bringing that figure up to 13,083.

Final data from the RIVM is often delayed by days, if not weeks, as some doctors and hospitals require more time to report findings to municipal health service GGD. Those reports are then collated and passed along to the RIVM.