Number of corona cases falls to the level of the start of the omikron wave

The number of positive corona tests continues to fall. The number of confirmed infections is likely to be at the lowest level since the beginning of this year, when the omikron wave started to get underway.

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) will release the weekly figures again on Tuesday. Last week, the institute reported that it had received 313,318 reports of positive tests in seven days. That was 27 percent less than the week before.

In the six days that followed, just over 190,000 positive test results were registered, an average of nearly 32,000 per day. The weekly total could therefore come to around 220,000. That would be the lowest number in 11 weeks. Compared to last week, this represents a drop of about 30 percent. It is not clear whether this decrease is due to the fact that people are less willing to be tested, or because there are actually fewer infections to be diagnosed.

RIVM also reports on Tuesday how many people with corona among its members have ended up in hospital in the past week. Last week there were 1,616 new admissions, of which 1,291 were admitted due to the contamination. The rest had other complaints and also happened to be infected. Both numbers were slightly lower than the week before. Of the 1,616, 114 ended up in intensive care, and in 91 of them the corona infection was the cause. That was actually an increase.

During the same period, the institute registered 95 deaths caused by the virus.