Dutch coronavirus record broken yet again as 3,302 test positive; Hospital admits at May levels

An estimated 3,302 more people tested positive for a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection, the most reported by health agency RIVM in a single day. Wednesday's total broke the previous record, set just one day earlier, by nearly ten percent.

The agency estimated that 9,227 people have tested positive for the virus this week, 35 percent more than last week. The data released on Wednesday also showed a near 40-percent increase over the single-day figure from last Wednesday, which was also record-breaking at the time.

The newest daily figures showed included 377 more infected residents of Amsterdam, a 45 percent gain over last week. Rotterdam reported 259 more infected residents, a 67 percent hike, and 249 people live in The Hague, up 96 percent from last Wednesday.

During a press conference earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said they expected five thousand infections per day in the near future. It was part of the Cabinet's justification to introduce new social restrictions in the Netherlands which took effect on Tuesday evening.

Thirteen more deaths were also tied to Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 48 more people were hospitalized with the illness, the data released on Wednesday showed.

There were 701 people from the Netherlands being treated for Covid-19 in hospitals on Wednesday, an increase of eight since Tuesday. It was the highest total of Covid-19 patients being treated at one time since May 27. Hospitals have shown a daily increase in for four weeks straight.

Although the hospitalization increase was predicted to be higher, the public should not be overly optimistic about the decrease. "It is logically too early to relate the limited increase in the past 24 hours to the measures just introduced," said acute care expert Ernst Kuipers.

Of the 701 patients, 150 were admitted to intensive care units, the most since May 31, and an increase of eight. Other hospital departments were treating 551 patients, the same as Tuesday.

The lower than expected increase provided patient coordinators with a little bit of breathing room to better optimize transferring some patients out of the busier regions and into less busy areas, Kuipers said.

Since the end of February, the Dutch intensive care system has treated 3,310 total patients, including 915 who died in the ICU. Another 2,098 were eventually released from hospitals.