Number of Covid-19 ICU patients falls for 11th straight day

There were 1,050 patients from the Netherlands being treated for respiratory illness Covid-19 on Wednesday, 37 fewer than the day before. The number of patients in intensive care began to fall after after April 9, and has gone down daily since April 12.

The continued decline meant healthcare workers could treat more patients without Covid-19 in intensive care than was possible in recent weeks. Some 395 patients were being treated in ICUs in the Netherlands on Wednesday, according to patient coordination office LCPS.

"The increase in the number of non-COVID patients in the ICU is, strangely enough, good news. It means that regular care is getting underway again. That process should accelerate now," said Ernst Kuipers, the chair of the country's network of acute care providers.

If the government had not taken measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the number of Covid-19 patients who needed intensive care would have been between 20,640 and 25,747 higher, RIVM director Jaap van Dissel said to parliament on Wednesday. Cumulatively, the number of Dutch ICU cases since the pandemic began was estimated at under 2,700 in total. According to Van Dissel, the social distancing measures prevented 90 percent of Covid-19 ICU admissions.

In Noord-Brabant, the province hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak in the Netherlands, the number of Covid-19 patients in ICU dropped to around 100 for the first time since March 24, the local consultancy on acute care ROAZ said to Brabants Dagblad on Wednesday. The number of ICU patients in the province has been decreasing since March 24.

Of about 2,700 people who have received treatment in an ICU, about 450 have been released from hospital and 575 have been transferred to another department. Around 625 have died.