Covid hospital total hits 7-week low, but infections rising; 496K vaccinated

The number of people being treated in Dutch hospitals for Covid-19 fell by three percent on Friday to 2,052, the lowest level since December 18. At the same time, coronavirus infections in the Netherlands rose for the fourth straight day, data from public health agency RIVM showed.

Dutch hospitals admitted 166 more patients with the coronavirus disease into regular care wards between the afternoons of Thursday and Friday, according to the LCPS. Another 22 people were admitted into intensive care, the lowest in nearly two months. The roadmap to pull the country out of lockdown says the government wants a maximum average of 80 regular care admissions and 20 ICU admissions over a two-week period to begin to structurally loosen restrictions.

The combined hospital total on Friday included 1,479 people in regular care, a net decrease of 40 after admissions, discharges and deaths. There were another 573 people being treated in intensive care, a decrease of 29.

The hospital tally was eight percent lower than last week. Should that trend continue, there will be fewer than 1,900 Covid-19 patients in care in one week's time.

Some 4,365 more people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection, the RIVM said. That was the fourth consecutive day where the figure rose after reaching a low point of 3,280 on Monday. The daily total on Friday was still just slightly lower than a week ago, bringing down the seven-day average to 3,924.

The three cities reporting the most new infections were Amsterdam (245), Rotterdam (187) and The Hague (100). Amsterdam's total was the highest since January 17. Rotterdam's figure was the most reported by that city in two weeks.

An estimate from the RIVM also showed that 495,535 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered since January 6. That was an increase of 40,537 in one day, slightly above the moving average with over 280 thousand shots given over the past seven days.

To date, 997,751 people have tested positive for the coronavirus infection since the end of last February. That includes 14,294 people who died from Covid-19, a figure which rose by 60 on Friday.