Change in reporting method maybe behind high Covid hospitalizations; Figures released late today

A change in how hospitals report Covid-19 hospitalization figures may be behind the significant increase in hospitalizations reported on Monday. Public health institute RIVM will publish its daily and weekly coronavirus figures later on Tuesday due to a new way of registering infections to clear up the backlog.

The RIVM publishes weekly figures every Tuesday around 3:00 p.m, but this week they'll probably come out between 4:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. The figure for the last day is also "extra high" due to the elimination of the backlog, the RIVM warned. The daily figures will also be published later. 

The RIVM did not get approximately 191,000 positive test results in the past week. The laboratories send results to the GGDs, who send them to source and contact researchers, who send them to the RIVM. The flow stalled, resulting in the backlog. That is why test results will now go "directly from the test centers to the RIVM."

For some time, several hospitals only reported the number of coronavirus patients admitted because they had become ill from a coronavirus infection. From Monday, all hospitals again report the total number of patients with coronavirus infections in the hospitals. That could explain the big increase in the number of admitted patients reported by the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS) on Monday.

From Sunday to Monday, the number of admitted patients rose by 149, the largest single-day increase since December 2020. This increase cannot be explained by new admissions. That was a total of 168 in the last 24 hours, lower than the average number of the past week.

A number of hospitals recently only reported the patients who were in the hospital because of the coronavirus, said a spokesperson for the National Acute Care Network (LNAZ), which includes the LCPS. These hospitals did not include patients who were admitted for another condition, but who also happened to have the coronavirus, in the figures. 

And that number is currently increasing due to the high infection figures. The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is causing a lot of infections but causes less severe symptoms than the earlier Delta variant. As a result, there are people admitted for other conditions who also happen to have a coronavirus infection.

The LNAZ spokeswoman could not immediately say how many hospitals reported only part of their Covid-19 patients and for how long. It is therefore unclear whether the hospital figures were distorted in the past period.