Covid infections down ten percent for the week

The number of new SARS-CoV-2 infections keeps falling. On Sunday, the public health agency RIVM reported 6,657 new cases, a ten percent decrease compared to Saturday and an eleven percent drop versus last Sunday.

This pushes the seven-day rolling average down to 7,453, the lowest since December 11. This week’s total tally of new infections is 52,171 compared to 58,520 last week, reflecting an eleven percent drop.

Hospitalizations have also been slowly going down. The patient coordination office LCPS announced that on Sunday, hospitals were treating 2,554 Covid patients in total. This is a one percent drop compared to the previous day and a five percent drop versus last week. Following this trajectory, we can expect the total number of Covid-19 patients to be around 2,422 next Sunday.

This decrease is mainly seen in regular care facilities, where on Sunday 1,850 patients were being treated, down 24 compared to Saturday. The number of patients in intensive care went up by 11 to 704.

In the 24 hours leading to Sunday afternoon, a total of 212 new patients were admitted to the hospital, a net decrease of 73 compared to the previous day. Among them, 187 were admitted to regular care wards. The other 25 patients were moved into IC units.

The three cities with the highest number of new Covid-19 infections were Amsterdam (245), Rotterdam (150), and The Hague (105). In the capital, Sunday’s number reflects a 33 percent increase versus Saturday and a two percent decrease compared to last week. In Rotterdam, infections went down by 25 percent compared to Saturday but increased by 19 percent compared to the previous week. In The Hague, the cases fell both compared to Saturday and the last week by 53 percent and 38 percent, respectively.

On Sunday, the RIVM also recorded another 54 deaths. This was a 61 percent drop compared to Friday when 139 deaths were recorded. However, it was still a 15 percent increase compared to the same time last week.

To date, over 12,361 people died of the virus in the Netherlands. Some 872,847 people have tested positive since the beginning of the pandemic. a