New coronavirus infections steady at 18,000; Death reports at 9-month high

For the second day in a row, Dutch health authorities reported that the number of new coronavirus infections was about 14 percent lower than the moving average. Some 18,144 people were diagnosed with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the RIVM showed in raw data. That was about 130 more than the previous day, but the daily figure was over 20,000 for three weeks before.

That brought the seven-day moving average down slightly to 21,121, the fifth consecutive day the figure has fallen. A combination of raw and corrected data put the total at 21,077, two percent lower than a week ago.

However, for the seven-day period ending on Monday, some 21.9 percent of those tested by the GGD were diagnosed with the infection, including 23.1 percent of people tested on Monday. The positivity rate has gone up the past few days after sliding from its peak of 22.5 percent in late November.

At the same time, an average of 85,600 were tested each of those days, a steep drop of over 10,000 compared to the previous period. That could be attributed to the government asking people to only go to the GGD if they have a symptom and have first taken a self-test with a positive result, or if their symptoms worsen.

A total of 709 people tested positive in Amsterdam, the city with the most new infections. However, the capital's average stood at 776, about 1 percent lower than a week ago. Rotterdam was second with 516 infections, below its average of 700. There were 447 new infections in The Hague, bringing that city's average down to 520.

The RIVM also learned of 72 more deaths caused by the coronavirus disease. Those deaths were reported to the organization in since Tuesday morning, but may have taken place at an earlier date, as there is no obligation to report the deaths to the health institute. It was the highest number of deaths reported by the RIVM in a single day in 41 weeks.

Hospitals were treating 2,840 people with Covid-19 on Wednesday, just one fewer than the day before after accounting for new admissions, discharges and deaths. That included 642 patients in intensive care units, a net increase of three that kept the figure at its highest point since mid-May. Sixteen of them were being treated at German ICUs. The other 2,198 patients were being treated in regular care wards, a net decrease of four.

Hospitals in the Netherlands admitted 357 people with the disease in the past 24 hours, including 46 sent directly to an intensive care unit. A total of 2,249 people with the disease were admitted during the past seven days, a nine percent drop from the week before.