Dutch coronavirus positivity rate falls below 10%; First time since July 7

For the first time in nearly 11 weeks, less than 10 percent of those tested for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus by the GGD received a positive diagnosis for the infection. An average of 9.7 percent of people tested between September 2 - 8 were infected, the lowest for any week-long period since July 1 - 7, considered the start of the Delta variant wave in the Netherlands.

The positivity rate has steadily fallen for two weeks, a period which coincides with the rapid increase in testing at the GGD municipal health services. Average daily test figures have gone up by nearly 50 percent during that time, with about 24 thousand tested on average each of the past seven days.

Another 2,730 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. That brought the seven-day moving average up one percent to 2,545. The figure, based on raw data released daily by the RIVM, was also one percent higher than a week ago.

The number of new daily infections has remained almost entirely between 2,000 and 3,000 for seven consecutive weeks. A combination of raw and corrected data put the moving average at about 2,518.

Rotterdam (202) was the city with the most new infections, the first time over two hundred cases were reported there in five weeks. The city's average stood at 151, two percent lower than a week ago. With 164 residents testing positive, Amsterdam was in second on the table. The capital's mean has gone up 8 percent in a week to 196. Infections in The Hague (136) were above its average (115), a figure which has dropped 8 percent in seven days.

Dutch hospitals were treating 673 people with Covid-19 on Friday afternoon. That was an increase of 16 in a day, after accounting for new admissions, discharges and deaths. The active patient total has gone up by three percent in a week. At that rate, the hospital total would approach 700 by next Friday.

The current patient total includes 462 patients in regular care, a net increase of 19. The other 211 patients were in intensive care units, three fewer than on Thursday.

Hospitals admitted 72 patients with the coronavirus disease during the past 24 hours, one less than the seven-day average. That included 12 who were sent directly to an intensive care unit, two fewer than the average this week. The combined average of 73 was 6 percent lower than a week ago.