First weekly increase in positive coronavirus tests in a month; Hospitalizations rise sharply

Some 12,016 people in the Netherlands were diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection during the past seven days. That was two percent higher than the previous weeklong period, marking the first such increase in four weeks.

The RIVM said that it knew the vaccination status of over 53,000 people who tested positive for the coronavirus in September, a month in which nearly 61,000 people in total were diagnosed with the virus. About 35,000 people were completely unvaccinated against Covid-19, roughly two-thirds of those whose status was known. More than 16,000 were fully vaccinated, and almost 2,00 were partially vaccinated.

Children between 0 and 14 represented more than one-fifth of new infections last week, but the 2,600 infections in the age group was 10 percent lower for the week. There were noticeable increases in infections among people in their twenties (+7 percent), thirties (+5 percent), forties (+1 percent), fifties (+11 percent), and sixties (+18 percent).

Despite the recent increase in infections, the average number of daily infections has fallen by a third during that time. A total of 17,890 positive tests were recorded from August 31 through the morning of September 7, according to data from the RIVM.

As the number of infections flattened out, the basic reproduction (R) number rose to 0.96 on September 20. That means that 100 contagious people will likely infect 96 others, who will then spread the virus to another 92 people. A week earlier, the figure was 0.90.

The most recent period, which ended Tuesday morning, continued a three-week trend in declining test figures. Municipal health service GGD completed 136,444 tests this past week, down seven percent from the previous week.

There were strong indications that the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations for the week shot up as a result of patient admissions between Monday and Tuesday. Hospital figures were showing a strong downward trend, but medical centers admitted 82 patients with the disease during the previous 24 hours, according to the LCPS. That was the most in a day since September 9.

Hospitals admitted 332 people with Covid-19 during the last seven days, according to the hospital monitor. That was 16 percent higher than the previous week. The increase was entirely in regular care wards, which took on 271 patients, 46 more than a week earlier. The intensive care units admitted 61 others, one fewer than the previous week.

Those figures paint a slightly different picture than data from intensive care monitor NICE, which the RIVM distributed. That showed 235 total hospital admissions, one fewer than corrected data from the previous week.

However, NICE and the RIVM often revise their weekly estimates over several days, resulting in fluctuations of 10 percent or more. NICE recorded 46 total ICU admissions in their unrevised data, 13 fewer than its corrected data from the previous week.

The RIVM also said it learned of 29 deaths caused by Covid-19 last week, down from 34. There is no requirement to notify the agency of such deaths. The country's statistics office tabulates more accurate figures on a quarterly basis.

Some 2,011,530 positive coronavirus tests have been registered to date. NICE estimates that 61,820 Covid-19 patients received care in hospital nursing wards, with a survival rate of nearly 87 percent. Intensive care units treated 13,883 people with the disease, with a survival rate approaching 73 percent.

The RIVM knows of 18,191 deaths caused by the coronavirus disease. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) said on October 1 that a more accurate provisional figure just from March 2020 through February 2021 was 27,056.