Nearly 7,000 new coronavirus infections; Dutch hospital total up 5%

Another 6,986 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, Dutch public health agency RIVM said on Friday. That was the most in a single day since May 8.

It raised the seven-day average by 37 percent to 3,190. The moving average has gone up by 376 percent in a week, and was five-times the total on June 30, the turning point when coronavirus infections started to rise again in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam residents were responsible for 798 of the new positive coronavirus tests, double the city's average. The meteoric rise in Utrecht continued with 641 infections reported there, three times its average. Rotterdam represented another 493 infections, double its average, while Groningen had 405 new infections, bringing its average up to 185.

Most coronavirus restrictions were relaxed on June 26. The Cabinet was widely expected to reintroduce limits to the hospitality sector that could require all bars, clubs and restaurants to close at midnight, and could severely reduce the ability for venues and events to admit more guests on the basis of a negative coronavirus test.

Those announcements were expected at a press conference on Friday at 7 p.m. Thus far, the Cabinet has said it is not clear how the rise in coronavirus infections would adversely affect the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations, and advice from the Outbreak Management Team was expected to provide guidance on the issue.

Hospitals in the Netherlands admitted the most Covid-19 patients in a single day since June 27. Between the afternoons of Thursday and Friday, 15 people were admitted into care including one who was sent to the ICU.

That helped push the patient total on Friday up five percent to 206. Regular care wards were treating 120 patients with the disease, a net increase of 14. That was the highest rise since May 17.

The hospital total also included 86 patients in intensive care, the lowest figure since September 21, after a net decrease of four patients.

The combined total of 206 was still 17 percent lower compared to a week ago. A similar drop will bring the total down to 173 by next Friday.

Updated germ surveillance data showed that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus was responsible for about a third of infections during the last week of June. The data is in line with previous statements from the RIVM that suggested it was likely the Delta variant became the most common strain of the virus in the Netherlands during the first week of July.