Higher percentage of people tested positive for coronavirus last week

An estimated 13.7 percent of people who self-reported for a coronavirus test over the past seven days tested positive for the viral infection, public health agency RIVM said. That was the same as during the week ending Dec. 22, and was an increase from 13 percent recorded during the week ending Dec. 29.

An estimated 16 percent fewer people were diagnosed with the infection during the period ending on Tuesday at 10 a.m. as the number of people who visited a GGD test center dropped by 15 percent. Some 56,440 tested positive for the infection during the weeklong period, including New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. 

The RIVM estimated that 40 thousand people showed up for a test on December 31, compared to about 80 thousand arrived on other Fridays during that month. "It may be that people were less inclined to get tested during and after the holidays, or that the lockdown is effective and fewer people have health complaints," the RIVM stated.

The most recent data showed that on Christmas Eve over 172 thousand people in the Netherlands were contagious with the virus, an increase of four percent. That increase came despite a reduction in the R-number from 1.15 to 0.91, meaning that every group of 100 contagious people will infect 91 others.

Of those who tested positive, 26 had visited the United Kingdom within 14 days of their diagnosis. The RIVM has not yet found any evidence that the highly contagious B117 mutation of the virus, which spread extremely fast in the UK during the winter, has led to more infections in the Netherlands other than the few which have been disclosed. A study by the RIVM, GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond and the Erasmus Medical Center is expected to conclude soon.

Some 582 people in total had traveled within two weeks of their positive coronavirus test. The most visited countries were Germany (135), Belgium (122), and France (38).

Hospitalizations for Covid-19 during the seven-day period fell by nearly 9.5 percent to 1,713. However, 336 patients were moved into intensive care during that time, a 10.5-percent increase.

The number of deaths reported to the RIVM which were caused by Covid-19 also rose to 621. That reflected an increase of almost seven percent.

To date, 834,064 people in the Netherlands have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Roughly 95 percent of them were tested after June 1, when testing opened up to the public. Some 11,826 have died from Covid-19, and over 32,500 with the disease have been treated in a hospital.