Hospitalisations double, but new infections are ‘stabilising’

The number of people in hospital with coronavirus rose again in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, to 415. Of them 100 are being treated in an intensive care ward, the national patient monitoring centre LCPS said.

It is the second day in a row that the number of coronavirus patients in hospital has risen by at least 50 and coming almost a month after the Netherlands removed most of the coronavirus restrictions. The number of people being treated in hospital for coronavirus has now doubled in a week.

Nevertheless, public health institute RIVM said on Tuesday that the number of new cases, which had surged since June 26, does now appear to have stabilized. The number of infections over the past week has risen by one third, which is well down on the 500% increase recorded in the previous week.

‘It will become clear in the coming week if the stabilization in the number of positive tests turns into a decline,’ the RIVM said in its latest weekly round-up.

In the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, 6,823 new coronavirus cases were reported to the RIVM, but this may have been affected by the weekend time lag.

In total, 9% of those testing positive had been fully vaccinated, 14% had had one jab and 77% had not been vaccinated at all, the RIVM said.

Over-60s

The number of positive tests among the under-25s has levelled off, but there was a sharp increase in infections among the over-60s, the RIVM said. The government had warned that the increase infections among youngsters would spread through to the older generations.

Of the source of infections which were traced last week, one in five took place at home and 15% in cafes and bars. A week ago, 37% of infections could be traced back to the hospitality industry.

The R number, or reproduction rate, has also gone down to 1.75 on July 5, the RIVM said. The previous figure was 2.91.