Covid hospitalizations continue to climb; Infections data backlog grows

Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 1,372 people with Covid-19 on Wednesday afternoon, 29 more than the previous day. It was the fourth consecutive day where the patient total increased. The figure grew by 19 percent in a week. A similar increase would put the total at over 1,635.

Some 1,157 patients were being treated in regular care wards, a net increase of 20 after accounting for new admissions, discharges and deaths. That figure returned to levels not seen in about four weeks. The other 215 patients were in intensive care units, a net increase of nine. ICU levels have remained relatively close to a three month low this past week.

Dutch hospitals admitted 212 patients with the coronavirus disease since Wednesday afternoon, with 19 of them sent directly to intensive care units. On average, hospitals admitted 180 patients with Covid-19 each of the past seven days. That was 33 percent higher compared to a week earlier.

The RIVM and the GGD were continuing to struggle with tabulating the results of all those testing positive for the coronavirus. Testing has remained at record-high levels, and a majority of tests analyzed by the GGD contained the coronavirus, also setting a new record. On Wednesday, the RIVM said it was trying to catch up on the data of approximately 104,000 positive test results, up from 81,000 on Tuesday.

Officially, 67,045 positive tests were registered between Tuesday and Wednesday morning. That was enough to push the seven-day average up two percent to 76,941, the highest average ever reported since the start of the pandemic.

The average has gone up 39 percent in a week. It also doubled since January 20, and was more than four times the average reported on January 6.

An estimated 56.1 percent of those tested by the GGD from January 24-30 were diagnosed with the coronavirus infection. The health service tested an average of 145,642 each of those days, or about 1.02 million in total.

The three cities with the most new infections in the latest data were Rotterdam (4,139), Amsterdam (3,191), and The Hague (2,230), however it remains unclear which municipalities have been most affected by the IT backlog plaguing the GGD and the RIVM. In Tilburg, for example, has a seven-day average of 822, but just 150 infections were recorded there in Wednesday's data. The single-day total was down by more than 90 percent compared to Tuesday.