Netherlands reports over 112,000 coronavirus infections in a single day; Hospital figures rising

The Netherlands set a stunning new record on Monday with 112,278 new coronavirus infections registered in the country since Sunday morning. That beat the previous record of nearly 75,200 set on Sunday.

It was not entirely clear how many positive tests recorded in the new data were actually diagnosed in the single-day period. The information systems of the country's public health institute, RIVM, and the GGD health services have been overwhelmed by the increase in infections reported in the past 14 days.

That led to a substantial backlog of data. There were 131,000 uncounted infections from the past two weeks as of Sunday, which fell to 105,000 on Monday. Additionally, 40,000 infections were not counted on Saturday due to a separate IT failure. The RIVM has said each day since the backlog began that it was "working hard" to resolve the problem.

A record-high 54.3 percent of people tested by the GGD from January 23-29 received a positive diagnosis for the infection. During that period, the municipal health services tested about 1.022 million people for the disease.

The three cities reporting the most new infections on Monday morning were Rotterdam (6,595), Amsterdam (5,771), and The Hague (5,689). An initial analysis showed that all three broke the record for most positive infections reported in a single day in one municipality, while also setting individual records in each city.

Dutch hospitals were also treating an increasing number of patients, which has been on an upward trend for nine days. There were 1,247 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals on Monday afternoon, an increase of eight percent after accounting for new admissions, discharges and deaths. The rate of increase was the highest since early November. The hospital total was nine percent higher than last Monday. A similar increase would put the total above 1,365.

The current tally included 212 patients in intensive care units. Despite rising by three in a day, it remained near a three-month low.

The other 1,035 patients were in regular care wards, a net increase of 90. Those departments were treating the highest number of patients since January 12, after posting the biggest rise in patient total since December 20.

A total of 149 patients with the disease were admitted to Dutch hospitals since Sunday afternoon, 11 of whom were sent directly to intensive care units. On average, hospitals admitted 157 Covid-19 patients each of the past seven days, up 27 percent in a week. That average remained the highest since January 4.