New record set with over 6,800 new coronavirus infections on Monday

Some 6,854 more people tested positive for a SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Netherlands, data from public health agency RIVM showed on Monday. The daily total set another new record in the Netherlands, topping the high mark set on Saturday by 350, and overtaking Sunday's total by nearly 500.

At the end of last week, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Health Minister Hugo de Jonge each said that the weekend data would be critically important in determining what, if any, new social restrictions could be placed on Dutch society to battle the pandemic. A press conference with the two was likely to take place on Tuesday evening, following meetings between Cabinet members on Sunday and the Outbreak Management Team on Monday.

A new lockdown was unlikely to be announced, even as the early data released on Monday showed 50 percent more infections than a week earlier. The tally was also 24 percent higher than last week's daily average, a week in which the preliminary data showed that over 38 thousand tested positive for the viral infection.

The RIVM data showed that 590 more residents of Amsterdam were diagnosed with the coronavirus infection, an increase of 68 percent over last Monday. Also, 439 tested positive in Rotterdam for a 9 percent hike, and in The Hague the figure rose by 6 percent to 286.

Covid-19 hospitalizations rise to 1,298; Seven times higher than a month ago

There were 1,298 patients with Covid-19 in Dutch hospitals on Monday, the most since May 16, after a single-day increase of 65. The total was seven times higher than the patient total released on September 13. Of the nearly 1,300 hospitalized patients, 1,046 were being treated outside of the ICU, sixty more than on Sunday, while intensive care units were treating 252, an increase of five.

Without stricter restrictions in the Netherlands, medical experts have predicted that the country will have 5,000 patients with Covid-19 by early November. Almost 13,400 people have been hospitalized with Covid-19 since the end of February, including nearly 3,600 who were treated in an ICU, according to data from the RIVM and nonprofit organization NICE.

Of the latter group, 2,179 eventually went on to recover from the disease, while 962 died during their intensive care treatment.

A total of 6,596 deaths have been definitively linked to Covid-19 in the Netherlands, including 12 more deaths reported by the RIVM on Monday. Approximately 181,498 have tested positive for the viral infection since the end of February.