Dutch coronavirus average tops 21,100, exceeding ECDC’s worst-case scenario

The Netherlands set a new national record for average daily coronavirus infections for the 11th consecutive day. The seven-day moving average reached 21,103 on Sunday following an update from the RIVM, the country’s national health institute.

The figure rose by 6 percent when the institute revealed that 20,717 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection between Saturday and Sunday morning. That also set a new record for most infections disclosed on a Sunday, breaking the previous record from December 2020 by nearly 8,000 new cases.

A total of 147,724 infections were diagnosed during the calendar week, according to the raw data. That figure was revised down to 147,413 with some corrections to the data, about 56 percent more than the previous week. That means about 842 out of every 100,000 residents of the Netherlands became infected just during the past week.

That far exceeded the worst-case scenario suggested by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. It predicted that roughly 108,000 infections could be expected, with a pessimistic possibility of about 125,000. The latter would have translated to roughly 714 infections per capita, which is well above the threshold for the starkest risk level assessed by the ECDC.

Because of the high infection level, most of the Netherlands is unlikely to be removed from the Dark Red warning level in the next few weeks without significant improvement in the number of infections and the percentage of tests taken which result in a positive diagnosis.

During the period from November 13-19, about 21.9 percent of those tested by the GGD were diagnosed with the coronavirus infection, the highest since the start of the pandemic. On the last day of that period, 22.5 percent tested positive, down from the record set a day earlier of 23.4 percent.

The three cities with the most new infections were Amsterdam (800), Rotterdam (597) and The Hague (448). All three were slightly between 4 and 7 percent below average, but infection figures are often lower on Sundays and Mondays than during midweek.

Covid hospital total jumps up by a hundred more

Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 2,316 people with Covid-19 on Sunday afternoon, 99 more than a day earlier. The patient load has gone up by 24 percent since last Sunday, to a 28-week high. A similar increase would place the figure at about 2,883.

There were 466 patients with Covid-19 in intensive care units on Sunday, an increase of 34 in a day after accounting for new admissions, discharges, and deaths. That pushed the ICU figure to its highest point since May 31. The other 1,850 patients were being treated in regular care wards, a net increase of 65 that brought the total to its highest level since April 30.

Hospitals admitted 2,094 people with the disease during the past seven days, an increase of 31 percent in a week. About 269 patients were sent directly to an ICU, roughly 27 percent more than a week earlier.

The more recent figure includes 287 patients admitted since Saturday afternoon, 35 of whom were sent to intensive care.