Covid ICU total again ticks up; 33,600 new infections after stormy day

There were 182 patients with Covid-19 in intensive care units on Saturday afternoon, the most in eight days. The ICU tally rose by three in a day after accounting for new admissions, discharges and deaths, the LCPS said. Apart from them, another 1,368 people with the coronavirus disease were in regular care wards, 37 fewer than on Friday.

That put the Dutch hospital total at 1,550, a net daily decrease of 2 percent. However, the total remained about 5 percent higher compared to last Saturday. A similar increase would put the figure at 1,640.

Hospitals admitted 211 patients with the disease in the past 24 hours, including 21 people sent directly to intensive care. On average, hospitals admitted 193 patients each of the past seven days, 1 percent fewer than the previous week.

Data from the RIVM showed that 33,629 people were diagnosed with the coronavirus infection between Friday and Saturday morning. However there were significant outliers in the latest round of data which could be linked to the early closure of many coronavirus testing centers due to Storm Eunice.

That was the lowest total since January 18, the start of a three-week period with more infections than the health services could tabulate. It brought the seven-day moving average down 9 percent to 53,141. The average fell by 37 percent in a week.

The basic reproduction (R) value fell further to 0.91, meaning 100 people contagious with the virus infected 91 others. They then passed it on to 83 others, who then infected another 75 people. When the R-value is below 1.00, the number of infections reported should continue to fall.

The positivity rate ticked up slightly, with the GGD giving news of the infection to 57.1 percent of people tested between February 11-17. During that time, just under 93,000 people were tested daily.

Fewer than 700 people tested positive in Rotterdam, the first time that has happened in six weeks. Only about 250 people tested positive in Eindhoven, less than half that city’s daily average.

Amsterdam had the second-highest infection total, with 1,034, though its seven-day average is 2,090. Utrecht led all cities with 1,036 infections, 400 fewer than its average.