Covid cases down 8% compared to last week; hospitalizations drop 1%

The national public health agency RIVM reported 6,918 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 on Sunday. The numbers dropped below 7,000 for the first time since Tuesday. This brings the seven-day rolling average to 7,171, two percent lower than last week. The total number of hospitalized patients dropped by one percent compared to the previous day but was still three percent higher than last week.

Sunday's single-day tally was a ten percent decrease compared to Saturday and an eight percent drop versus last week. The cumulative number of infections for the previous calendar week was 50,195.

The three cities with the highest number of new infections on Sunday were Amsterdam (320), Rotterdam (283), and The Hague (225). In Amsterdam, cases increased by six percent compared to last week. In Rotterdam, the number of cases decreased by 18 percent compared to the previous week. In The Hague, infections went down by 16 percent this week.

The total number of patients being treated for Covid-19 in Dutch hospitals decreased slightly. On Sunday, the patient coordination center LCPS reported a total of 2,317 hospitalizations, a net decrease of 31 patients versus Saturday. This reflects a one percent decrease compared to the previous day. The numbers were, however, still three percent higher than last week. Following the current trend, we can expect around 2,392 Covid-19 hospitalizations next week.

730 patients were stationed in intensive care wards, down four compared to the previous day. Another 1,587 patients were being treated in regular care, a decrease of 27 patients compared to Saturday.

Between the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday, hospitals admitted 230 new coronavirus patients. Among them, 177 were placed in regular care wards, a three percent drop compared to last week. Another 53 patients were moved to the intensive care, a two percent decrease versus the previous day, but still a 29 percent increase compared to last Sunday.

An estimate from the RIVM also showed that, so far, 2,783,295 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered. That was an additional 41,251 injections on Saturday, bringing the number of vaccines in the past seven days to 427,837. The government announced that it intended to scale up its vaccinations to eventually place one million jabs each week.

According to last week's data provided by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the Netherlands currently ranks 26th among EU member states for the percentage of the population that has received the first dose of the vaccine. The data shows that almost 14 percent of the population eligible for a vaccine has received their first shot in the Netherlands.

Another 16 deaths were also reported as being caused by Covid-19, the RIVM said. That brought the seven-day average to 23. In the past week, 161 people died of the virus, 15 percent less than the previous week.

To date, 1,302,146 people in the Netherlands have tested positive for the SARS-CoV2 infection. That includes 16,622 people who died from Covid-19.