Over 100,000 positive Covid tests in Netherlands next week: ECDC

The number of positive coronavirus tests in the Netherlands will continue to rise, the European health service ECDC expects. It calculates that 616 out of every 100,000 Netherlands residents will probably learn that they are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus during the next calendar week. That equates to about 108,000 new cases. 

In the worst-case scenario, almost 125,000 infections could be diagnosed next week. That is an average of nearly 18,000 cases per day.

The ECDC expects that the number of hospital admissions, ICU admissions, and deaths in the Netherlands will also continue to rise for the time being. 

On Thursday, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) reported a record 16,364 positive tests. The old record of just under 13,000 was recorded last December, according to corrected data from the agency.

In the past seven days, the coronavirus was diagnosed in more than 86,000 people, or about 494 in every 100,000 Netherlands residents.

The Netherlands will likely be among some countries in the European Economic Area with the highest number of per capita infections if it reached 616 positive tests per 100,000 residents. That would bring the country level with Lithuania and Hungary. Other countries, including Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia and Slovenia could exceed 1,000 cases per capita. The number of infections is lowest in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Sweden and Finland, and will likely remain that way.

The ECDC also provides weekly estimates of the “level of concern” regarding coronavirus across Europe. That is now very high, 8.3 on a scale that runs from 1 to 10. At the beginning of October the risk was still low, at 3.5 out of 10. To calculate that risk, the ECDC looks at not only the number of positive tests and the rate of positivity, but also at the percentage of cases found in people over 65 years of age. This is because they are at the greatest risk when they become infected. The ECDC also includes the number of hospital admissions and deaths in its calculations.