Sharpest drop in Dutch Covid hospital total on record; ICU total hits 22-week low
The Dutch hospital system reported the sharpest single-day decrease in Covid-19 patients since the figure was reported regularly by the LCPS starting in April 2020. The hospital total fell by 171 patients to 1,804 on Saturday afternoon, after accounting for discharges, deaths and new admissions. The decrease reflected a 9 percent fall, the highest rate of decline since July 6.
Out of the 1,804 patients in hospital care, 139 were in intensive care units, the lowest total since October 16. That figure fell by 13 since Friday afternoon. The ICU tally has fluctuated lately, but has remained below 200 for nearly 40 days. The other 1,665 patients were in regular care wards, a net decrease of 158.
Overall, the combined patient total rose by 7 percent in a week. A similar increase would take the figure up to 1,930. Including 229 patient admissions over the past 24 hours, hospitals admitted 1,762 people with the disease during the last seven days. That was 15 percent higher than the previous week.
The RIVM said that 41,606 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus between Friday and Saturday morning. That brought the seven day moving average down to 51,569, the tenth straight reduction. The figure was 18 percent lower than the previous seven-day period.
The basic reproduction (R) value fell substantially to 1.05. That means that 100 people contagious with the coronavirus on Feb. 28 infected 105 others, who then passed the virus on to 110 more.
The three cities with the most new infections were Amsterdam (1,619), Rotterdam (1,018), and The Hague (954). The Amsterdam figure was over 550 below average, while the other two cities posted totals more than 400 below average.
About 65.6 percent of those tested between March 11 - 17 were told they were infected with the coronavirus, a figure which has been slowly falling from the recent all-time peak of 70 percent. Testing figures fell to 74,100 per day compared to 98,400 the previous week.