Covid infection average falls slightly; 14% drop this week

Friday marked the seventh straight day where new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands were below the six thousand mark. Another 5,791 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 viral infection, public health agency RIVM said.

That pushed the seven day average down slightly to 5,340. Though the moving average dipped to its lowest point since December 4, there were signs that the month-long decline was starting to slow. Still, the rolling average was 14 percent lower than it was a week ago.

Friday’s single-day tally was one percent lower than on Thursday, and five percent lower than a week ago. It pushed infections for the calendar week up to 26,420, about ten percent lower than last week.The three cities with the most new infections on Friday were Amsterdam (242), Rotterdam (210) and The Hague (124).

Another 89 deaths were also listed as being caused by Covid-19, the RIVM said. That brought the seven-day average down to 82. Fatal cases of the coronavirus disease were down 15 percent for the week, the RIVM data showed.

Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 patients being treated in hospitals increased by about one percent since Thursday afternoon, but the total was still five percent lower than last week. Dutch hospitals were treating a total of 2,354 Covid-19 patients on Friday, 670 in intensive care and 1,684 in the regular nursing wards, according to patient coordination office LCPS.

If this current decreasing trend continues, there will be around 2,250 hospitalized Covid-19 patients next week Friday. However, hospitals have taken on six percent more coronavirus patients into regular care this week, and have seen a sharp increase in ICU admissions.

Between the afternoons of Thursday and Friday, hospitals admitted 231 new coronavirus patients into regular care, six percent more than a week ago and 10 percent more than the seven-day average. During that time, 31 patients were moved into intensive care, slightly lower than the seven-day average.

To date, 938,628 people in the Netherlands have tested positive for the SARS-CoV2 infection. That includes 13,422 people who died from Covid-19.