Covid hospital total up 13% in a week; Most new patients in 21 days

Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 1,586 patients with Covid-19 on Tuesday afternoon, according to the LCPS. After consistently falling for almost three weeks, the hospital total shot up by 13 percent in a week led by two straight days where the tally rose by over a hundred after accounting for new admissions, discharges and deaths. A similar 13 percent increase would push the patient total back towards 1,800.

Among the patients were 1,429 people in regular care wards, a net increase of 104 since Monday. The regular care figure was at its highest point since February 22. The other 157 patients were in intensive care units, a net decrease of four. The ICU total remained near its lowest point in over four months, according to the LCPS, which monitors additional pressure on hospitals caused by Covid-19.

Hospitals took on 237 new Covid-19 patients between Monday and Tuesday afternoon, the most in three weeks. On average, hospitals admitted 178 new patients each of the past seven days, a 19 percent week-on-week increase. That was the sharpest weekly rise since the beginning of February.

The data from the LCPS showed that 1,247 patients with Covid-19 were admitted during this past week, up from 1,046 the previous week. Figures from the LCPS were delayed on Tuesday, but suggested the possibility that the situation in the hospitals has worsened faster than the RIVM and intensive care monitor NICE were prepared to acknowledge.

Meanwhile, the RIVM said that 66,257 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus between Monday and Tuesday morning, the fifth straight day the total was over 60,000. That pushed the seven-day moving average up to 62,791, according to raw data.

A record 70 percent of people tested by the GGD during the last calendar week received the news they were infected with the coronavirus. During that time, about 85,000 people were tested daily, up 60 percent from the previous week.

The latest data showed that Noord-Brabant remained the province with the most new infections, nearly 14,800, about one week after Carnival celebrations wrapped up there. The three cities with the most new infections were Amsterdam (2,411), Utrecht (1,749), and Rotterdam (1,605).