Again over 7,300 coronavirus infections as 225 more wind up in hospitals

Some 7,305 more people were diagnosed with a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection, public health agency RIVM said on Wednesday. That marks two straight days of over 7,300 infections, after Tuesday's record-breaking day, raising the Dutch total above 196 thousand.

The new daily tally was 46 percent higher than last Wednesday, raising this week's total up to 21,552. That reflects a 53 percent increase compared to the same period a week ago.

The latest infection data showed the most positive tests concerned residents of Amsterdam (639), Rotterdam (560), and The Hague (325). The increases per city compared to a week earlier were 38 percent, 70 percent, and 50 percent, respectively.

Data from patient coordination office LCPS showed that 225 more people were admitted to hospitals for the coronavirus disease in a day, including 27 more patients who entered intensive care. "The pressure on hospitals is increasing," said acute care leader Ernst Kuipers in response.

The RIVM is now using the LCPS data as its key indicator of hospitalizations for the disease, instead of figures from the GGD municipal health services. The GGD data was often delayed by days, or even weeks, with hospitals not obliged to report figures to the organization.

That change led to a dramatic surge in hospital admissions on the public-facing Coronavirus Dashboard. By comparison, the GGD data showed almost 150 fewer patient admissions for the day. As of Wednesday, the RIVM data confirmed 13,544 hospitalizations for Covid-19 since the end of February.

It brought the total number of currently admitted Covid-19 patients up to 1,475 in Dutch hospitals on Wednesday, an increase of 65 over the past day. The patient total rose by over 44 percent during the past week.

That total included 1,174 people outside of intensive care, an increase of 41, and 301 patients in an ICU, up over 24 compared to Tuesday. Some 35 patients were transferred from busier hospitals to regions with fewer coronavirus patients, a figure which is rising significantly, Kuipers said.

Earlier in the day, Kuipers said there was likely to be 5,700 patients with the coronavirus disease in hospital beds by the end of November if the latest round of Dutch restrictions does not get the escalating problem under control. Over the past seven days, the patient total has risen by an average of 5.4 percent daily. At that rate, there could be 2,040 patients with Covid-19 present in hospitals by next Wednesday.

Since the end of February, the intensive care system has treated 3,670 patients from the Netherlands for Covid-19, according to nonprofit organization NICE. Out of that group, 974 died in the ICU, and 2,199 were eventually released from hospitals.

The RIVM also said 32 more people died from Covid-19, raising the Dutch total up to 6,663. Over the past seven days, an average of 21 deaths have been reported daily.