Netherlands gave a million Covid vaccine shots last week; Covid ICU total below 600

Healthcare workers in the Netherlands administered an estimated 1,009,030 Covid-19 vaccine shots during the previous calendar week, preliminary data from the Ministry of Health showed. With 136,458 people getting an injection on Sunday, the country managed to top a million Covid-19 vaccine injections during a single calendar week for the first time ever.

Last week's figures were an improvement over the previous week by about 14 percent. The estimated total was roughly two percent below ministry projections.

A total of 8,457,934 jabs have been given since the start of the vaccination program in January, a figure derived from the model used by public health agency RIVM. That includes over 1.2 million shots which were a person's second of a two-dose vaccine.

More concrete statistics will be released by the RIVM on Tuesday. Preliminary data suggests that between 40 and 50 percent of eligible adults in the Netherlands have been given at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot.

The nine millionth shot will be given on Thursday if the vaccination progress continues at the same pace.

Covid-19 hospital total again falls sharply

Dutch hospitals were also treating 1,695 people on Monday afternoon for the coronavirus disease. That reflected a single-day decrease of four percent, bringing the total down to its lowest point since December 11. The total has fallen by 22 percent in seven days. If that trend continues there will be fewer than 1,325 patients with Covid-19 in care next week.

The current total includes 598 patients in intensive care, a single-day decrease of 12. That snapped a 65-day streak where the ICU total was above six hundred. The third-wave peak of 841 was reached on April 25.

Outside of the ICU, another 1,097 patients were being cared for, a net decrease of 7. It was the first time that number fell below 1,100 in over seven months.

Coronavirus infections very low on Monday

The RIVM said on Monday that another 2,766 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, an extraordinarily low figure possibly driven by a reduced amount of testing during the Pentecost holiday weekend. Testing figures have been declining rapidly since the last week of April towards the low levels seen during a cold snap in February.

The Monday tally brought the seven-day moving average down to 4,053. That was 20 percent lower compared to a week ago.

Along with a decline in testing figures, the previous two weeks have also shown improvement in the percentage of people testing positive. Preliminary data showed that about 10.6 percent of those tested during the week ending May 22 were diagnosed with the infection, which is down from over 12.5 percent the previous week.