Covid-19: 313 more patients admitted; Hospital total at 2,376

Hospital admissions for Covid-19 continued to climb on Wednesday, with at least 313 new admissions since Tuesday afternoon. Another 53 patients were also moved into intensive care during that time, according to patient coordination office LCPS.

A total of 2,376 people were being treated for the coronavirus disease on Wednesday, after accounting for deaths and discharges. That was 18 more than on Tuesday. The total was 22 percent higher than a week earlier, a rate which has steadily declined since peaking at 60 percent on October 10.

RIVM infectious diseases director Jaap van Dissel said during a parliamentary briefing on Wednesday that he was "convinced" the rise in new infections was leveling off. However, due to an IT malfunction at the GGD health service over the weekend, he said he could not predict with any certainty if the hospital system would start seeing a reduction in its coronavirus patient admissions.

"The coming days will be critical," he said. The same technical error also occurred on Wednesday, causing the release of new data to be delayed, an RIVM spokesperson told NL Times.

The patient total included 1,831 patients outside of intensive care, an increase of two, and 545 in intensive care, an increase of 16. Two of the ICU patients were still being treated in Germany.

"For the hospitals we really need to see a leveling off now, so that we reach a plateau at the beginning of November. If that does not happen, we will really be in trouble," said Ernst Kuipers, the head of the Dutch acute care providers network, while at Parliament on Wednesday.

ome 4,341 confirmed coronavirus patients have been treated in an intensive care unit since the end of February, including 1,092 who lost their lives in an ICU. Nonprofit organization NICE estimated that 2,377 patients were eventually discharged.

At least 14,740 patients have been hospitalized with the disease in total. However hospital data from the agency could be a low estimate with medical centers not required to report the admissions to the RIVM or municipal health service GGD.