Daily covid infections tops 8,000 again; hospitalizations up 9% for the week

The national public health agency RIVM reported 8,288 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 on Sunday, the highest single-day tally since March 27. Hospitalizations also continue to rise. On Sunday, hospitals treated 2,517 Covid patients. Meanwhile, another 46,927 people received their vaccine. Additionally, a record number of 400,000 vaccination appointments were made in one day.

Sunday's single-day tally was a seven percent increase compared to the previous day and a 20 percent increase versus last week. This brought the seven-day rolling average to 6,990, a three percent decrease compared to last week. The cumulative number of infections for the previous calendar week was 48,928.

Hospital rates up 9% versus last week

The total number of patients being treated for Covid-19 in Dutch hospitals increased again. On Sunday, the patient coordination center LCPS reported a total of 2,517 hospitalizations, a net decrease of 26 patients versus Saturday. This reflects a nine percent increase compared to the previous week. Following the current trend, there will be around 2,739 Covid-19 hospitalizations next week.

788 patients were stationed in intensive care wards, one more than Saturday. Another 1,729 patients were being treated in regular care, an increase of 25 patients versus the previous day.

Between the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday, hospitals admitted 260 new coronavirus patients. Among them, 218 were placed in regular care wards, a 23 percent rise compared to last week. Another 45 patients were moved to the intensive care, a 15 percent decrease versus last Sunday.

Record number vaccination appointments made

An estimate from the RIVM also showed that, so far, 3,182,836 doses of coronavirus vaccines have been administered. That was an additional 46,927 injections on Saturday, bringing the number of vaccines in the past seven days to 399,541. This was, however, seven percent less than during the same period last week.

The government announced that it intended to scale up its vaccinations to eventually place one million vaccines each week. According to the Dutch national healthcare system's umbrella organization, GGD GHOR, 135,000 people made an appointment online for their first vaccination on Saturday. In addition, more than 65,000 people made an initial vaccination appointment through the call center. Since an appointment for a second injection is made directly when making an injection appointment, 400,000 injection appointments were made on Saturday. "A new daily record", according to GGD GHOR Nederland.

Weekly average of Covid deaths down to 22

The three cities with the highest number of new infections on Sunday were Rotterdam (358), The Hague (321), and Amsterdam (252). In Rotterdam, cases increased by 27 percent compared to last week. In The Hague, the number of cases rose by 43 percent compared to the previous week. In the capital, infections went down by 21 percent this week.

Another 17 deaths were also reported as being caused by Covid-19, the RIVM said. That brought the seven-day average to 22. In the past week, 151 people died of the virus, six percent less than the previous week.
To date, 1,350,665 people in the Netherlands have tested positive for the SARS-CoV2 infection. That includes 16,771 people who died from Covid-19.