New coronavirus infections fall for the first time in seven weeks
The number of coronavirus infections diagnosed in the Netherlands over the last seven days was 4 percent lower than the week before. It was the first weekly decrease reported by the RIVM since the end of September. At the same time, the number of hospitalized patients who have tested positive are continuing to rise. There are 1,234 patients with Covid-19 in Dutch hospitals, an increase of 6 percent in a week.
A total of 22,688 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, down from 23,693 the week before, the RIVM said on Tuesday. Those are people whose test results were reported to the RIVM, and not individuals who tested positive using a self-test kit alone. “We cannot say whether the number of positive tests is now going down, rising further or staying at this plateau for a while," a spokesperson for the RIVM told ANP. “The virus is continuing to circulate quite a lot. If the increase levels off, that does not mean that coronavirus is gone."
While it was too early to say if the autumn coronavirus wave has reached its peak, there were other positive signs as well. The basic reproduction (R) value fell back down from 1.13 to 0.97. That indicates that 100 people contagious with the virus on 4 October went on to infect 97 others. They then passed it on to 94 people, who further infected 91 more individuals. When the R-value is below 1.00, it suggests that the number of new infections will continue to decline.
During the first half of last week, sewage surveillance also showed a possible reduction in the amount of coronavirus particles found in waste water. During the first full week of October, that total rose by 20 percent. The figure seemed to dip by 15 percent from 10-12 October, but that data is preliminary.
Additionally, about 5.4 percent of the RIVM’s survey panel said that they had symptoms of Covid-19 during the last calendar week. The week before, that total was 6.2 percent. Fewer people taking part in the weekly survey tested positive as well, from 2.9 percent down to 2.4 percent. That total includes people who used a self-test kit.
Meanwhile, the RIVM said that 677 people entered hospitals requiring treatment for Covid-19 during the last calendar week, down slightly from 693 the previous week. Intensive care admissions rose from 41 to 48. The RIVM only counts those patients who are in active treatment for the coronavirus disease, whereas the national patient distribution service LCPS counts all patients who test positive for the coronavirus infection. This is because the LCPS monitors hospital crowding and resource levels, and those who test positive need to be isolated away from other patients, thus demanding more from nurses and doctors.
Hospital total continues to rise
A total of 1,234 hospital patients had Covid-19, according to the LCPS, up from 1,160 last Tuesday afternoon. Current intensive care figures showed that there were 52 patients in the ICU with the disease, up from 47 a week earlier.
Some 196 people with the infection were admitted into care just in the last 24 hours, including ten who were sent directly to an ICU. That raised the seven-day moving average up to 170 daily admissions, an increase of 9 percent.
The LCPS said that ten people with Covid-19 were sent to intensive care units each of the past seven days.
