Coronavirus infections and hospital admissions drop by more than 20%

Coronavirus infections and hospital cases fell by more than 20% in the last week, the most significant decline since the start of February.

The number of positive tests went down from 47,108 to 35,142, a drop of 25.4%, while the percentage of tests that were positive decreased for the first time in nine weeks, from 12.3% to 12.2%.

During the week 1,152 people were admitted to hospital with coronavirus infections, 21% fewer than the previous week, while intensive care admissions were down by 23.6% at 239. On Tuesday there were 646 patients in intensive care, the smallest number since March 27.

The public health agency RIVM’s weekly bulletin also reported another 90 deaths from Covid-19 in the last seven days, compared to 164 the week before.

The reproductive number R was measured at 0.89 on May 3, confirming that infections are declining, down from 1.01 a week earlier.

The biggest fall in infections last week was in age groups that have only just started being vaccinated, with decreases of more than 30% in the 65-69 and 70-74 age bands and 28% among people in their late seventies.

The school holiday also appears to have an impact, with 1.4% of infections where the source was known being traced to school or childcare compared to an average of 6.6% since the start of February.

Around the 25 local health board regions the infection rate ranged from 122.5 per 100,000 people in Drenthe to 305.7 in Brabant-Noord. Three areas are still above the threshold of 250 which is classed as ‘very severe’ on the government’s four-stage risk scale.

In nearly two-thirds (61.1%) of cases people caught the infection from people in their own household, with home visits accounting for another 25%. However, the source was cited in just 56% of cases.

Only 1.4% of infected people had travelled abroad in the previous two weeks, nearly half of whom had returned from Belgium or Germany. Twenty cases involved people who had been to India.