Deaths linked to Covid-19 up 20 percent this week
Preliminary data released this calendar week showed that 619 deaths were caused by Covid-19, an increase of 20 percent compared to last week. The number of deaths reported on average rose from 74 last week to 88.
Public health agency RIVM often receives fewer death notifications on weekends, and Sunday was no exception with the agency disclosing 47 fatal cases. To date, 11,612 people in the Netherlands are known to have died from the coronavirus disease, but several thousand others likely died before they were diagnosed, statistics bureau CBS said based on mortality figures.
Some 7,438 more people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection, the RIVM said on Sunday. That pushed the national total up to 821,163 since the end of February. This week, 58,520 people were diagnosed with the infection, a 21 percent decrease compared to last week.
It was not yet clear if that decrease was due to reduced testing over the Christmas and New Year’s period, or if it was because of the hard lockdown the country entered into over two weeks ago. On New Year’s Eve, for example, about 40 thousand people were tested for the infection, half as many as the week prior.
On Tuesday, the RIVM will release more comprehensive data about the number of people who were tested, and what percentage of them tested positive. From December 23 - 29, about 13 percent of those who scheduled their own coronavirus tests were given the positive diagnosis, down from 13.7 percent.
The three cities with the most new infections on Sunday were Amsterdam, (249), The Hague (168) and Rotterdam (126). For the latter, it was the lowest sum since December 15, when data errors interfered with the results. All five of the largest cities in the Netherlands showed declines for the week of between 22 and 25 percent.
Hospitalizations for Covid-19 remained steady on Sunday after the third straight day with a below average number of new admissions. The regular care departments took on 241 more patients with the coronavirus disease, and moved 29 people into intensive care.
It pushed the total number of Covid-19 patients in hospital care up to 2,701, a net increase of seven after accounting for admissions, deaths and discharges. That was about 12 percent higher than last Sunday.
The current admission total included 2,006 patients in regular care, an increase of one, and 695 patients in intensive care, a net increase of six.
Through the end of the calendar week, hospitals admitted 2,009 coronavirus patients into regular care, just under three percent more than the previous week. During that time, they moved 331 patients into intensive care, a gain of almost 15 percent.
Hospitals were still projected to have over three thousand coronavirus patients in their care by the end of next week.