Six millionth vaccine given; Dutch coronavirus average falls, but positivity rate high
The six-millionth Covid-19 vaccine was expected to be given in the Netherlands on Thursday, with an estimated 5,980,676 shots administered through the end of the previous day. Some 120,230 people received a jab on Wednesday, the most since April 13.
Over the course of the past week, 102 thousand people received an injection of one of the four Covid-19 vaccines used in the Netherlands. The sluggish figures have shown signs of improvement this week, but that will need to accelerate faster in order to reach this week's target of 815 thousand.
The seven-day average for new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands fell slightly to 7,213 on Thursday after the RIVM said that another 6,861 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The new data from the Dutch public health agency brought infection totals more up-to-date following IT outages over the weekend and on April 27.
The rate in which people who scheduled their own coronavirus test were diagnosed positive edged up towards 12 percent during the seven days beginning with King's Day. That continues a trend that started about two months ago, when about 7.7 percent were testing positive daily.
Since the last week of March, the average number of coronavirus tests conducted daily has also trended downwards. Around 57,500 have been tested over each of the past seven days.
Preliminary figures show that 31,290 people tested positive for the viral infection this calendar week, a 13 percent increase compared to last week. Those figures were likely skewed due to the previous IT issues at the RIVM and the GGD.
The total number of Covid-19 patients in Dutch hospitals was six percent lower compared to a week ago, with 2,551 people in treatment. That was slightly higher compared to Wednesday, but if the week-long trend continues, there would be just over 2,400 patients with the coronavirus disease in care by next week.
There were 807 patients with Covid-19 in intensive care on Thursday, a net decrease of 23 patients, or nearly three percent of Wednesday's total. The number of Covid-19 patients in an ICU has been above 800 for twenty consecutive days.
Another 1,744 people were being treated for the disease in regular care, a net increase of 29, figures from patient coordination office LCPS showed.
To date, people have tested positive for Covid-19 a total of 1,538,589 times.