Dutch coronavirus average nears 20,000 with 350 more hospitalized

The seven-day average number of daily coronavirus infections reached a new all-time high for the tenth consecutive day on Saturday. The figure rose by six percent in a day to 19,866, according to raw data from the RIVM. That was about 48 percent higher than a week ago, with no sign the increase is abating. The figure has gone up nearly every day for over seven weeks.

Another 21,873 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection between Friday and Saturday morning. Nearly 291,000 people have been diagnosed with the infection already this month. Even though ten days remain in November, the monthly total easily broke the old monthly record of 273,500 set in December 2020. 

By comparison, fewer than 56,000 people tested positive for the coronavirus during the first 20 days of October 2021.

Amsterdam led all cities with 1,071 new infections reported on Saturday, which pushed the capital’s average up to 800. It was the first time since the first Delta variant wave in July that Amsterdam had over a thousand infections in a single day. Rotterdam also had 699 new infections, which brought that city’s average up to 572. Fifty municipalities registered one hundred or more infections on Saturday.

Meanwhile, hospitals in the country admitted 350 new patients with Covid-19 between Friday and Saturday afternoon, the most in a single day since April 30. The LCPS said that 32 of those patients were sent directly to an intensive care unit.

That pushed the total number of Covid patients in care up 3 percent to 2,217, seventy more than on Friday, after also taking discharges and deaths into account. The total was 24 percent higher than a week earlier. A similar increase would put the tally at 2,749.

The current figure includes 432 patients in intensive care, a net increase of four. The other 1,785 were being treated in regular care wards, a net increase of 66. Combined, the hospital total remained at its highest point since mid-May.

A total of 2,025 patients with the disease were admitted into care during the past seven days, up 29 percent from a week earlier. That includes 266 sent directly to an ICU, up from 206 the previous week-long period.