Dutch coronavirus death toll tops 15,000; Most vaccines given in ten days
Dutch public health institute RIVM said that 89 more people in the Netherlands died from Covid-19. That pushed the total number of deaths definitively linked to the disease up to 15,017. Statistics bureau CBS has said in the past it believed thousands of others have also died as a result of the coronavirus disease, but were not diagnosed in time.
The daily total of 89 pushed the seven-day moving average up to 62. Since Monday, 204 deaths have been reported by the agency, a nine percent increase over last week.
The seven-day average for new coronavirus infections ticked up slightly to 3,658, data from the RIVM showed. Another 3,416 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection, the public health agency said on Wednesday, a 25 percent increase compared to a day earlier, and a 6 percent rise over figures released last week.
This calendar week, 9,026 people have tested positive for the viral infection, including results from Monday when test centers opened later because of icy roadways. That tally was 24 percent higher than last week, a period in which testing was also affected by inclement weather.
In Amsterdam, another 231 residents were diagnosed with the viral infection, which pushed the seven-day average there up to 185. The city has seen its moving average rise by a third over the past week. Rotterdam and The Hague reported 107 and 97 infections on Wednesday, respectively, with the former about nine percent below average.
Vaccinations begin at GP offices
Healthcare workers administered an estimated 35,024 more coronavirus vaccine doses on Tuesday, according to the RIVM. That was the most in a single day since February 6, just before winter storm Darcy struck. Over the past seven days an average of 29,969 jabs were given, including some who received their second dose of the vaccine.
While most of Tuesday's vaccination tally was reported by the regional branches of health service GGD, an estimated 1,473 doses were administered at the offices of general practitioners. That was the first time a figure was reported from the family doctors' offices.
Previously, the GGD's coronavirus IT system was previously unable to distinguish between vaccines given to some healthcare workers, and vaccines given by a GP to an elderly person residing at home.
So far, 835,929 doses of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered. At least 154 thousand of those were the second dose administered to a patient. Each of the three vaccines currently in use in the European Union require two doses for maximum protection.
The situation in hospitals today
Despite Dutch intensive care units admitting the highest total of new Covid-19 patients in 20 days, the total number of currently admitted patients in the acute care wards fell by a net total of six to 520. The ICUs took on 34 more Covid-19 patients since Tuesday afternoon. There were also 1,399 patients in regular care, a net decrease of one which also takes into account 177 new patient admissions in the nursing wards.
The combined current Covid-19 patient total of 1,919 was four percent lower than last week, with Dutch hospitals projected to have just over 1,850 patients in care next week should the decrease continue at that rate.
To date, 1,038,156 people in the Netherlands have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection.