Covid-19 patient total eases off 4-month high; New IT outage with infection numbers
Some figures in this article were corrected due to data missing at the time of publication.
After a sharp increase in the total number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients at the end of the workweek, the patient total recovered somewhat over the weekend. At the same time, a technical outage plagued the computer systems which collate raw data on new coronavirus infections for the second time this week.
There were 2,600 patients being treated for the coronavirus disease in Dutch hospitals on Sunday, a single-day decrease of one percent. That brought the total down to where it had been at mid-week, though the new total was still three percent higher than a week earlier.
The total includes 804 patients in intensive care, a net decrease of seven after accounting for admissions, discharges and deaths. The ICU total has held above the 800 mark for 16 consecutive days. It reached its most recent peak eight days ago at 841 and has steadily decreased since.
The other 1,796 patients were being treated in regular care, reflecting a net decrease of 31.
An issue with the information systems at municipal health service GGD meant that the data reported by public health agency RIVM on Saturday was artificially low. Figures reported on Sunday were even lower.
The RIVM said that 5,534 more people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, five percent lower than Saturday, and 32 percent lower than a week ago. It brought the seven-day moving average down to 6,698, the lowest it has been since March 23.
The data that has been released thus far showed that 46,887 people tested positive for coronavirus this calendar week, 19 percent lower than last week. More clarity about how missing data affected these figures will likely be released by the RIVM with their official weekly report on Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the RIVM said that an estimated 102 thousand people were given a Covid-19 vaccine shot on Saturday. The agency issued a significant correction to the data on Thursday but said it hoped to administer 650 thousand doses for the calendar week.
An estimated 5,557,642 Covid-19 vaccine shots have been given in the Netherlands since January 6. Figures provided by the Ministry of Health to the ECDC showed that over 4.2 million people have received at least a first shot of a vaccine, and over 1.2 million have received a second shot.
However, a spokesperson for the RIVM previously confirmed to NL Times the agency was not aware of how doses of the Janssen Vaccine would be included in the results. That vaccine only requires one shot, while the others approved for use in Europe require two shots for maximum protection against the disease.
To date, people in the Netherlands have tested positive for the coronavirus infection 1,507,615 times. The RIVM has learned of 17,172 deaths caused by Covid-19, with thousands more reported to the country’s official statistics office.