Covid ICU level at 16-week low; 70,400 new infections

Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 1,471 patients with Covid-19 on Saturday afternoon, including 176 in intensive care. The ICU total fell by 13 after accounting for new admissions, discharges, and deaths, reaching its lowest point since October 23. It was the fourth consecutive day in which the ICU tally decreased, according to the LCPS.

Regular care wards were treating another 1,295 patients, a net decrease of 56. With 1,471 Covid-19 patients in all departments, the hospital total was about 8 percent higher compared to the previous Saturday. A similar weekly increase would put the total at 1,601.

Hospitals admitted 208 new patients with the coronavirus disease in the past 24 hours, 13 of whom were sent to intensive care. On average, hospitals admitted 195 patients each of the past seven days, a 1 percent increase compared to the previous week.

The RIVM said that 70,410 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus between Friday and Saturday morning. Corrected data from the RIVM showed that an average of 84,830 people tested positive daily since February 2.

About 58.5 percent of people tested positive for the coronavirus between February 4-10. About 133,518 people were tested by the GGD each day during that period.

Additionally, the basic reproduction (R) value fell slightly to 1.09 on January 24. That means that 100 people contagious with the virus infected 109 others, who then spread the coronavirus to 119 others. They in turn gave the infection to another 130 people.

The three cities with the most new infections in the latest data were Amsterdam (2,408), Utrecht (1,809), and The Hague (1,793).