Covid hospital total at new 6-week low, but infections are rising again
Hospitals on Thursday were treating the lowest number of Covid-19 patients since November 14. There were 1,870 people with the disease in treatment, including 13 Netherlands residents still occupying a space at a German intensive care unit. However, nearly 15,000 more coronavirus infections were reported, pushing the seven-day average up for the second straight day after over three weeks of steady declines.
The hospital total fell from 1,978 to 1,870 since Wednesday afternoon, equivalent to a decrease of five percent after accounting for new admissions, discharges and deaths. The total was 17 percent lower compared to last Thursday. A similar reduction would bring the total below 1,570.
There were 505 people in intensive care units, including those in Germany. That reflected a single day net decrease of 23, the sharpest drop since June 5, which brought the ICU tally to its lowest point since November 24. The other 1,365 patients were in regular care wards, a net decrease of 85.
Dutch hospitals admitted 156 patients with the disease in the past 24 hours, including 19 sent directly to intensive care. On average, 179 patients were admitted each of the past seven days, 12 percent lower than a week earlier.
A total of 14,868 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus between Wednesday and Thursday morning. That brought the seven-day moving average up two percent to 12,641, based on raw data from the RIVM. The average had gone down every day since December 5, but has now gone up for two days straight.
A combination of raw and corrected data put the moving average at 12,599, just four percent lower than a week earlier. It was a sign that the steady reduction in new daily infections may have leveled off, and could begin to rise with the emergence of the Omicron variant. The variant is now dominant in the Netherlands, and is believed to be more contagious than the Delta variant, which was displaced.
Over 30 percent of people tested by the GGD were diagnosed with the infection the past four days, which pushed the seven-day positivity rate up to a record 25.5 percent. At the same time, only about 47,500 people were tested by the GGD each day between December 22 and 28, with daily tests down by more than half since the start of the month.
The three cities with the most new infections were Amsterdam (914), Rotterdam (795), and The Hague (473). The moving average in the capital has gone up 19 percent in a week to 812. In Rotterdam, the figure rose by 16 percent to 557. The mean in The Hague was about 4 percent lower at 390.
