Coronavirus infection average rises 14th straight time; Covid hospital total shoots up 6%

People in the Netherlands tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection another 6,340 times, which pushed the seven-day average up to 6,424. That average has increased every day for two weeks, and was now over 41 percent higher than on March 8, when Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he was optimistic that more lockdown restrictions could be loosened up.

That prospect was becoming increasingly unlikely following a meeting of Cabinet members and advisors over the weekend. News leaked out after the meeting that cafe terraces would remain shut for the foreseeable future, higher education classrooms would stay closed, and the public would be told not to travel abroad through at least May 9.

It was compounded by the fact that the Covid-19 hospitalized patient total jumped by six percent to 2,193 between the afternoons of Sunday and Monday. The number of patients in regular care soared by 93 to 1,555, while the intensive care units were treating 27 more patients.

That put the ICU total up to 638, the most since February 1. Combined, the hospitalized total was nine percent higher than a week earlier. If that trend continues for another seven days, it would mean that Dutch hospitals would have more than 2,375 patients with the coronavirus disease in care for the first time since January 25.

To date, the Netherlands has administered 2,098,236 doses of Covid-19 vaccine, including an estimated 27,762 on Sunday. The one-week pause on the AstraZeneca vaccine due to an investigation into blood clotting helped drag down last week’s vaccine program by 25 percent. An average of under 30 thousand people were given a jab over the past seven days.

The 6,340 new infections reported by public health agency RIVM on Monday was 10 percent lower than on Sunday, but five percent higher than a week earlier. Infections in Rotterdam (299), Amsterdam (228) and The Hague (174) topped the daily list. The averages in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht have all gone up by about 20 percent in a week, with figures worsening faster in Almere, Eindhoven and The Hague.

Over the past 13 months, people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 infection 1,207,806 times. That includes 16,290 people whose deaths were determined to be caused by Covid-19.