Covid hospital patient total near 12-week high, with 1,126 in care

Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 1,126 people with Covid-19 on Monday, the highest total since 20 July. The total rose by 164 since Friday, a 17 percent increase. The weekend increase was the highest since mid-March.

News outlet ANP noted that a year ago there were fewer than 500 patients in care for Covid-19. About a month later, the total soared above 2,000. The patient coordination office, LCPS, stopped updating figures over the weekend in April as the coronavirus situation was steadily improving. However, late last month the RIVM pointed out that the Netherlands is at the start of a new wave of infections.

Dutch hospitals were treating 34 percent more patients infected with coronavirus compared to last Monday. The current patient total includes 47 people in intensive care, up from 44 a week earlier. Regular care wards were treating 1,079, a weekly increase of 281.

Hospitals admitted an average of 152 patients with the disease each of the past seven days, including seven sent directly to intensive care. That figure has gone up by 20 percent in a week. Just in the past 24 hours, hospitals took on 171 new patients with Covid-19. Nine of them were sent to an ICU.

The LCPS monitors crowding at hospitals and how it affects the care hospitals can provide. It counts all patients who test positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, whether they are symptomatic or not, as they need to be quarantined. By keeping them in isolation, hospital resources become more strained.