Covid-19 hospitalizations nearly triple in a month with over 900 patients in care

Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating more than 900 patients with Covid-19 for the first time in nearly six months. There were 907 people hospitalized with the disease on Monday afternoon. The total has nearly tripled in four weeks with a corresponding rise in new hospitalizations.

The total rose by 18 percent since Friday, equivalent to an increase of 139 patients, the LCPS said. From the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the organization helped coordinate care between different regions, and set up a network to transfer patients from overcrowded hospitals to medical facilities in calmer areas.

The current hospital total includes 48 patients in intensive care units, four more than on Friday. The other 859 patients were in regular care wards, an increase of 135 after accounting for new admissions, discharges and deaths. Combined, the patient total was at its highest point since October 19, according to data from the LCPS.

Just four weeks ago, hospitals were treating 316 patients with the disease. On March 6, the LCPS said there were 17 patients in intensive care, and 299 in regular care. At that time, the hospitals were admitting an average of 58 new Covid-19 patients per day, with three sent directly to intensive care.

Over the past week, hospitals admitted an average of 160 patients with Covid-19 each of the past seven days. Eleven of them were sent to an ICU each day on average.

The LCPS said on Monday afternoon that Dutch hospitals took on 191 new patients with the disease in the preceding 24 hour period. That was about 19 percent higher than average. However, nine of them were sent to intensive care, slightly below average.