Coronavirus daily avg. back up near 7,200; Covid hospital total at 3-month high

Another 6,757 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection, pushing the seven-day moving average up to 7,189, data from the RIVM showed on Monday. The average has gone up for four consecutive days, returning back to where it was just before the Easter holiday brought about a brief dip in testing figures.

Monday's total was 26 percent higher compared to last week. The moving average has risen by three percent over the past seven days.

There were also 2,582 people with Covid-19 being treated in Dutch hospitals on Monday, the most since January 8. The hospital tally rose by three percent between the afternoons of Sunday and Monday, and stood nine percent higher than one week ago.

The total included 794 patients in intensive care, a net increase of six. There were a total of 1,181 people requiring intensive care on Monday, above the pre-Covid maximum capacity of about 1,150.

"The influx of COVID patients has increased further in the past week. This led to an increasing occupancy rate, both in the ICU and in the wards," said Ernst Kuipers, the chair of the national acute care network LNAZ. The ICU system is being scaled up to accommodate 1,550 patients.

There were 1,788 patients also being treated outside of intensive care, a net increase of 59. The moving average of new daily Covid-19 hospitalizations also continued to rise, topping three hundred on Monday.

No update on the country's vaccination figures was provided by the RIVM. Through Saturday, the country had administered 3,182,836 Covid-19 vaccine doses. However, it looked like the country would fall far short of its revised vaccination goal for last week, which was nearly 500 thousand.