About 350 Covid-19 patients in hospitals; Only 1,400 tested daily for coronavirus
Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 354 patients with Covid-19 on Monday. That was 21 percent lower than a week earlier, when 447 people were receiving treatment for the disease, figures from the LCPS showed. The figure has fallen to its lowest point since mid-July.
The current patient total included 25 people in intensive care units, down from 30 on May 23. The intensive care total was at about the lowest point since August 2020.
Preliminary data from the RIVM showed that hospitals admitted 154 people with Covid-19 during the seven-day period ending on Tuesday morning. The figure is 31 percent lower than the final total for the week prior, with 223 hospitalizations in total. Last week, intensive care hospital admissions linked to Covid-19 stood at 14, four fewer than the previous week.
The RIVM said on Tuesday that 7,088 people tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus during the preceding seven days. That was five percent lower than the previous week. It brought the seven-day moving average down to 1,013. The GGD found 619 people who tested positive last week that recently visited a foreign country. The most frequently visited place was Spain (148), followed by Portugal (59), the United States (56), Germany (54), and Italy (52).
An examination of wastewater in the country showed that there was a 3.5 percent increase in the average number of coronavirus particles present. The increase was determined during the week ending May 22. A similar percentage decrease was observed during the first half of the following week.
Coronavirus testing by the GGD fell sharply, with just 9,990 tested during the weeklong period. That was the lowest since testing was made widely available in the Netherlands. The total was 15 percent lower compared to one week earlier. It means that an average of about 1,425 people showed up daily at a GGD facility for a coronavirus test. Of that group, about 53 percent tested positive, compared to 51.5 percent the previous week.
The basic reproduction (R) value remained relatively flat at 0.89. That indicates that 100 people contagious with the coronavirus on May 16 infected 89 others. They then passed the virus on to 78 people, who further infected 69 more. If the R-value is below 1.00, it suggests a likelihood that coronavirus infections will continue to fall.
Those in their thirties had the highest likelihood of testing positive last week. They represented 19.2 percent of all infections, roughly the same as those in their fifties. People older than eighty accounted for 3.8 percent, while children up through 14 years of age made up 4.0 percent.
The highest total number of infections, 971, were found among residents of the Amsterdam-Amstelland region. That area also had 89 infections per 100,000 residents, the highest per capita total of the 25 security regions. Limburg-Noord was the region with the lowest total in both categories. The 104 infections there equated to 19.9 per capita.
About 36 percent out of a sample of 1,025 people who tested positive identified their household as the likely source of infection. Roughly 19 percent, or 194 people, believe they were infected while on a day trip or vacation. Visiting another home made up 12.5 percent of infections, while both a party and a job site counted for 11 percent. Visiting a hospitality or catered function likely accounted for nearly 8 percent of new infections.
The most recent update on germ surveillance in the Netherlands also shows a growing number of infections of the BA.4 and BA.5 versions of the Omicron variant. A combination of these two was expected to become dominant by the end of May, but currently make up about 5 percent of known Omicron infections. Thus far, the Omicron sub-variant designated BA.2 has remained most common in the country.
The trend in wastewater investigation showed the increasing presence of BA.4, BA.5, and the BA.2.12.1 sub-variants. "At five locations, BA.5 was the most common variant in the sewage sample," the RIVM said.
