Another Dutch record as over 23,500 test positive for coronavirus

Some 23,680 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus between Wednesday and Thursday morning, the fourth consecutive time that a new record high was set in the Netherlands. The new high mark is nearly three thousand more than the previous day's total.

It pushed the seven-day moving average up 6 percent to a new high of 18,039, based solely on raw data. A combination of raw and corrected data put the figure closer to 18,001. Both figures were at the upper end of what the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control predicted for the week. Each was about 46 percent higher compared to a week earlier.

Figures released this past weekend were artificially lower due to a telecommunications outage at the GGD municipal health services. As a result, the totals reported between Monday and Wednesday included the bulk of the missing data, with some more carried over in Thursday's update of raw data. The data being prepared for release on Friday will better reflect the true state of the situation in the Netherlands.

The GGD said that another record for number of tests conducted in a single day was broken on Wednesday. That reached 94,000.

The three cities with the most new infections were Amsterdam (872), Rotterdam (551), and The Hague (533). A total of six cities had over 300 infections, with 50 cities reporting 100 or more new infections among its residents.

Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 2,110 people with Covid-19 on Thursday afternoon, up 2 percent in a day. The figure remained at about the same level as in the third week of May.

The total included 413 people in intensive care units, an increase of 11 after accounting for new admissions, discharges and deaths. The other 1,697 people were being treated in regular care wards, a net increase of 22.

During the previous 24 hours, 289 people with the disease were admitted into hospitals, including 52 sent directly to intensive care. The latter was the highest total in a single day since May 1.

Hospitals admitted 1,884 people with the disease this past week. That has gone up by 29 percent in a week. It includes 258 sent directly to an ICU, up from 187 the previous week.