Coronavirus infections up 62% to 13,471; Hospitalizations, fatalities rise

The number of people who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus last week totaled 13,471, a 62 percent increase over the previous week. A startlingly high 6.1 percent of all those who were tested for the virus gave a positive result, a ten-fold increase over figures seen earlier in the summer.

At the same time, another 152 people were hospitalized with Covid-19, a 60 percent increase. It was the highest total of new hospitalizations reported in a single week since May.

Additionally, 33 deaths were linked to Covid-19 for the week ending on Tuesday at 10 a.m. That is a substantial increase over the 14 deaths recorded during the previous week.

To date, 98,240 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus infection. Some 12,467 people in the Netherlands have required hospitalization for Covid-19 because of the viral infection, while 6,291 deaths were definitively linked to the coronavirus disease.

Broken down by province, last week's infections disproportionately affected Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland and Utrecht. Roughly 69 percent of all infections occurred in residents of those three provinces, which contain the six security regions subject to new social restrictions since Sunday evening.

There was also a large per-capita increase in infections in Groningen, which saw its weekly infection total nearly double to 367.

About 43 percent of those who tested positive last week were aged between 20 and 39. This rate fell from 46 percent, while older age groups were beginning to represent a higher proportion of those reported with a positive test result. About 15.5 percent of those testing positive were in their fifties, up from 13 percent, with those aged 70 and up representing six percent, up from percent. People below the age of 20 represented 15 percent of those testing positive a slight increase.

The number of infected people who travelled to the Netherlands within two weeks of testing positive fell again, this time to 403. The RIVM said that 98 of them had recently arrived from Germany, 50 had been in Belgium, 42 spent time in France and 39 visited Turkey.

Testing for the virus dropped slightly last week, compared to the week before, with 192,255 people requesting a test from the GGD municipal health services. The test results for 23,000 were not ready in time to be included in the weekly official report from public health agency RIVM.