Dutch Covid ICU total below 450 for first time since October

The hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 447 people with Covid-19 in intensive care units on Tuesday. That was a 32-week low, and the first time since October 20 that the total dipped below 450.

The ICU total decreased by about six percent, a net decline of 30 patients, since Monday afternoon. Regular care units were treating 793 others, a net decrease of 57.

Combined, there were 1,240 patients with the disease in treatment, a single-day decrease of seven percent. The combined total was 26 percent lower than a week ago. Should that trend continue for another week, there will be about 915 patients in care next Tuesday.

The LCPS said that 83 patients were admitted into care in the past 24 hours, including just six sent to the ICU. For the last seven days, the daily figure has averaged 94, substantially lower than the third-wave peak of 313 recorded in mid-April.

“Even with this positive and declining trend, we will continue to distribute Covid patients evenly across the Dutch hospital regions,” the LCPS said in a statement. “We will do this to create equal access to hospital care for all patients in our country, and for an equal starting position of the regions for catch-up care.”

The RIVM also said that another 2,530 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, leaving the seven-day average unchanged at 3,003. The three cities with the most new infections reported on Tuesday were Rotterdam (154), The Hague (75) and Amsterdam (66).

Rotterdam’s daily average has fallen by 30 percent in a week to 161. Averages in Amsterdam (125) and The Hague (96) have both dropped by about 20 percent.

To date, people have tested positive for the coronavirus infection 1,651,780 times in the Netherlands.