Coronavirus average, Covid hospital total rise higher

Some 7,187 more people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, public health agency RIVM said on Monday. That was a six percent increase compared to a week ago, enough to push the seven-day moving average up to 7,741.

The update, along with an increase in Covid-19 hospital patients, was given shortly after reports surfaced that Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Health Minister Hugo de Jonge were likely to announce the loosening of some lockdown restrictions during a press conference on Tuesday.

The seven-day average on Monday was at its highest point since January 9 after a week in which coronavirus infections rose by ten percent compared to the previous calendar week. Still, Monday's daily total was 15 percent lower compared to Sunday, but weekend testing also appeared to drop off compared to earlier in the week.

The number of admitted hospital patients with Covid-19 rose by three percent between the afternoons of Sunday and Monday. It reached 2,544, including 813 in intensive care, a net increase of five, and 1,731 others in regular care, a net increase of 61.

"The last two weeks we have seen a stabilization in the number of new admissions. That does not alter the fact that we are at an extremely high level in terms of intake and staffing in the ICU and wards," said patient coordination office LCPS.

In fact, after two months of rising hospital figures, the stable total was at or near the peak of third wave Covid-19 admissions, according to LCPS data. The organization will continue to transfer patients from busy hospitals to emptier facilities for the foreseeable future.

The RIVM did not provide an update to the vaccination program by publication time. Healthcare workers in the Netherlands gave 689,770 Covid-19 vaccine injections last calendar week through Saturday. If accurate, that put the country in a firm position to exceed its estimate of nearly 758 thousand doses.

Over 4.5 million injections have been given, according to the RIVM model.

To date, people have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection 1,410,950 times. That includes the 16,938 people who died from Covid-19 and whose deaths were reported to the RIVM. The country's statistics office said that the real figure was likely more than 50 percent higher than the RIVM tally.