18 more Covid-19 patients in hospital; 137 more test positive for SARS-CoV-2

Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 109 people for respiratory illness Covid-19 on Saturday, erasing all improvements reported the previous day, when 91 admitted patients were known to have the coronavirus disease. Also on Saturday, public health agency RIVM disclosed that at least 137 more people in the country tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus which causes Covid-19.

So far this week, exactly one thousand positive test results have been revealed by the agency through their open data portal, according to an audit by broadcaster NOS. With an average of 167 new patients reported each day this week, the weekly total was on pace to be 18 percent higher than last week. Last week's total of 987 new patients was already a near doubling compared to the first two weeks of July.

"It is important to contain the increasing spread of the virus," said Ernst Kuipers, the chair of the acute care providers network in the Netherlands. "The reassuring news is that the current total [of new infections] is not expected to lead to a significant increase in hospital admissions in the short term."

The total of 109 current patients in hospital included 91 patients with Covid-19 outside of the intensive care units, an increase of 17. Eighteen patients were also being treated in the country's ICUs, an increase of one, according to patient coordination office LCPS.

At least 2,937 people in the Netherlands have required treatment in an ICU since the end of February, figures from nonprofit organization NICE showed. That includes 867 people who died in intensive care, and 1,889 who were treated and later discharged from the hospital.