Nearly 14,000 coronavirus infections; Third-highest total despite IT errors
Some 13,902 people in the Netherlands tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection between Friday and Saturday morning, according to new data from the RIVM. A telecommunications failure at health service GGD prevented many test results from being reported, causing the figure to be artificially low.
Despite the underreporting, the daily total was the third-highest to date. The record of 16,364 was set on Thursday, and the total on Friday was 16,287. The GGD said it could take a few days to catch up on the backlog of positive test results, and that there were delays to their source and contact tracing program.
The new data pushed the seven-day moving average up two percent to a new record, 13,409, based solely on raw data. That daily average was 42 percent higher than figures from a week ago. It was also about eight-times the average reported when the government eliminated nearly all social distancing rules and coronavirus restrictions at the end of September. A combination of raw and corrected data put the figure closer to 13,100.
The six weeks of surging infections prompted the government to tighten up policy in early November, despite calls to do so ten days earlier. The stricter use of coronavirus access passes was not enough to stem the tide, and so the Cabinet announced new “lockdown-like” measures on Friday night.
About 17.8 percent of those tested by the GGD from November 4-10 were diagnosed with the infection. That figure was on its way towards the record of 18.5 percent set at the end of October 2020. Roughly 68,600 people were tested daily during that seven-day period in November, rising towards numbers not seen in nearly seven months.
The basic reproduction (R) number has remained relatively steady at 1.21, the RIVM said on Friday. That means that 100 people contagious with the virus at the end of October went on to infect 121 others. They then spread the infection to 146 more people, who passed it on to another 177.
The three cities with the most new infections on Saturday were Amsterdam (594), The Hague (376), and Rotterdam (371). Amsterdam has the highest moving average of all cities, which was 507. That was 44 percent higher than a week earlier. Rotterdam followed with 429 (up 62%), and The Hague was in third with 341 (up 49%).
To date, some 2,283,083 positive coronavirus tests have been recorded in the Netherlands.
