More hospitals resuming care as Covid patient levels fall; Over 31,400 new infections today

With the number of Covid-19 patients in care continuing to fall, and new admissions down towards a three-month low, Dutch hospitals have been able to further resume their normal activities and non-Covid care. Most hospitals have started to conduct scheduled care again, including non-critical surgeries, said the Dutch Healthcare Authority.

Nine still have yet to resume such procedures, down from 28 last week. Sixteen of the 73 hospitals are still unable to fully resume critical scheduled care, the procedures which will endanger a patient if not carried out with a six-week timeframe. That is a slight improvement from last week. Where operating rooms in use were a third below normal last week, that figure improved to 24% below normal this week.

There were 1,186 people with Covid-19 in hospitals on Tuesday, the first time the figure has fallen below 1,200 since October 31. The total was 4 percent lower than on Monday afternoon, and 21 percent lower compared to a week ago.

That reflected the sharpest weekly fall since early July. Another 21 percent drop will bring the Covid-19 patient total below 950. The current patient total included 303 people in intensive care units, one of whom was in a German hospital. That combined for 14 fewer ICU patients than on Monday. The other 883 people were in regular care wards, a net decrease of 40. Dutch hospitals admitted 107 patients with the coronavirus disease in the past 24 hours, including 7 sent directly to intensive care.

However, with the sharp rise in coronavirus infections, patient coordination office LCPS said it expected hospital admissions to begin rising again by the end of January. For now, with an average of 111 Covid-19 hospitalizations per day, admissions were at the lowest level since the third week of October.

A total of 31,426 coronavirus infections were diagnosed between Monday and Tuesday morning, the RIVM said. However, IT issues that occurred meant that many more infections were not recorded in time for the update from the health institute on Tuesday. Missing data will be added to statistical releases during the week.

Still, the seven-day moving average rose for the 21st consecutive day to reach 34,754. The figure, based solely on raw data, was 20 percent higher compared to a week earlier.

The cities with the most new infections were Amsterdam (2,534), Rotterdam (1,722), and Utrecht (970). A high number of infections was also reported in The Hague (891) and Tilburg (714).

About 36.8 percent of people tested by the GGD during the last calendar week received a positive diagnosis for the coronavirus infection. Over 99,300 people were tested each day last week, on average.