Nearly 8,000 nursing home residents infected with Covid-19

Over 7,900 residents of nursing homes in the Netherlands tested positive for Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. As did nearly 1,100 residents of care institutions for disabled people, Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health said in a letter to parliament, based on figures and estimates from public health institute RIVM.

Of the nearly 8 thousand nursing home residents who tested positive for Covid-19, over 2,500 died. There were also another 4,550 suspected, but unconfirmed, cases of Covid-19 in nursing homes.

At the start of this year, around 120 thousand people lived in nursing homes in the Netherlands. That means that around 7 percent of nursing home residents contracted the coronavirus, and over 2 percent died. About half of the elderly people who contracted the virus recovered so far. 982 nursing homes, about 40 percent of the total, reported at least one coronavirus infection.

According to the Minister, the number of Covid-19 infections in nursing homes is decreasing every week, as is the number of deaths.

De Jonge also said that nearly 1,100 residents of care institutions for the disabled tested positive for Covid-19. About 220 of them succumbed to the disease. A total of 307 care institutions reported at least one Covid-19 infection, about 12 percent of all the care institutions for disabled people.