Covid hospitalizations jump 15-18 percent; Over 366,000 Covid infections last week, but 60,000 uncounted

The number of Covid-19 hospitalizations in the Netherlands has started to rise, according to the RIVM. It is the first time that infections increased on a weekly basis since early December.

In the past week, the 855 people had symptoms of Covid-19 which were serious enough to require hospitalization, health institute said in its regular weekly recap on Tuesday. That figure was up from 741 the previous week, a corrected figure which was higher than initial reporting. That represents a 15 percent increase, but the latest data will likely increase somewhat as the data is updated. Out of the 855, intensive care units admitted 65 patients, down from 99 the week before.

Patient figures released daily by the LCPS showed a greater 18 percent increase. The patient monitor said that the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations during the past seven days totaled 919. That includes 67 intensive care admissions, down from 79 the previous week.

The number of new coronavirus cases is continuing to rise faster than the IT infrastructure of the RIVM and the GGD can handle. In the past seven days, the RIVM recorded 366,120 positive tests, the highest weekly total ever. That broke last week’s record by more than 50 percent,

The actual number of confirmed infections is actually higher, as the data backlog has risen to about 60,000 cases. These are infections that have already been diagnosed, but which have not yet been registered in the RIVM’s database. This means that in reality there were probably about 426,000 positive coronavirus tests last week.

That would amount to an increase of over 75 percent compared to last week, when fewer than 293,000 infections were reported. The week before, the RIVM disclosed a total of 201,500 positive coronavirus tests.

Based on the official data from the RIVM, the largest per capita increase in infections was recorded among children. Those of primary school age saw a 161 percent jump in the number of coronavirus positive tests, while there was a 112 percent increase among those who could be attending secondary schools. Nearly 58,500 children aged 10-14 tested positive, as did over 38,000 children from 5-9 years of age. Over 9,000 babies and toddlers also tested positive for the coronavirus.

“The number of positive coronavirus tests also clearly increased among people in their thirties (+42%) and forties (+42%). The number of positive coronavirus tests decreased (-13%) in the 18-24 age group,” the RIVM said. More specifically, some 27,000 people aged 20 to 24 were told they had contracted the coronavirus, 10 percent less than a week earlier.

This is the second decline in a row for this age group, possibly the result of the rapid earlier increase in the number of coronavirus cases among people in their twenties. "The virus has circulated on a large scale in this age group in recent weeks. The group that is currently still susceptible may have become smaller as a result," said Aura Times, the head of infectious disease control at the RIVM, In a reaction last week.

The RIVM also confirmed that the GGD set a new record for most Covid-19 tests conducted. Of the nearly 950,000 people who had themselves tested at a GGD test street last week, 431,549 were found to actually be infected with the virus. That means 45.4 percent of all tests were positive.

A week earlier, 36.8 percent were positive, which was a record at the time. The week before it was 34.1 percent and a week earlier it was 30.8 percent.

The commercial test providers also have never had as many positive tests as last week, although the percentage is considerably lower than that of the GGDs. Of the more than 164,000 people who required an access test last week, 7,870 were actually infected with the coronavirus. That equates to 4.8 percent. A week earlier, 3.7 percent were positive, and it was 3.4 percent the week before that.

The number of deaths linked to Covid-19 remained virtually the same. There is no obligation to notify the RIVM of such deaths, but the health institute was informed that 61 people died as a result of their infection, compared to 63 the week before.