Covid hospital total sets new second wave peak; Most patients admitted since Mar. 30
Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 2,751 people for Covid-19 on Tuesday, the most on any single day since the first half of April. The patient total was 20 percent higher than just one week ago, putting the Netherlands on pace to have well over three thousand patients in treatment by January 5.
During the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday afternoon, hospitals admitted 430 more coronavirus patients, eclipsing any other day going back to March 30, data from both the LCPS and NICE showed. That figure was 44 percent higher than the seven-day moving average of 299.
“The number of COVID patients rose above the highest level from the second wave in early November during the past 24 hours," confirmed Ernst Kuipers, the head of the Dutch acute care providers network.
Also over the past day, 72 Covid-19 patients were moved into intensive care, 47 percent more than the moving average of 49. The Dutch government wants this figure to be no higher than ten in order to comfortably relax social restrictions in place from October, which were then tightened in December.
Of the 2,751 patients in hospitals on Tuesday, 674 were being treated in intensive care, an increase of 23 after accounting for deaths and discharges. That was the most since May 4. The regular care departments were treating 2,077 patients, a net increase of 155.
Public health agency RIVM also revealed that 171 more deaths were linked to Covid-19, bringing the moving average up to 84.
The RIVM said that 7,561 more people tested positive for an infection of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, slightly higher than on Monday. The rolling average for infections fell to 9,651 on the news.
The agency said it believed the drop in infections witnessed since Sunday was largely due to people not getting tested for the viral infection, and not because the situation in the Netherlands was improving.
Amsterdam (279), The Hague (199) and Rotterdam (185) were the three cities with the most new infections among residents. Almere also continued its 17-day streak with over a hundred infections, posting 119 more on Tuesday.
