According to the latest figures from the National Coordination Center for Patients Spreading (LCPS), there are still 103 corona patients in intensive care units, one less than on Monday. That is the lowest number since July 20 last year. In the nursing wards, the number of people with corona decreased by 52 to 1636 in the past 24 hours.
In the past 24 hours, 152 new corona patients were admitted to the nursing wards. Seven patients with corona were admitted to the ICUs, the lowest influx since January 25.
Some of the patients who tested positive for the coronavirus were initially admitted for a different reason. After doing a corona test, it turns out that they are also positive. The LCPS makes no distinction in the daily hospital figures between patients admitted with or because of corona.
Corona cases
The number of coronavirus infections in our country continues to fall. Between Monday morning and Tuesday morning, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) registered 14,081 positive results from corona tests, a halving compared to last Tuesday.
In the past seven days, RIVM received a message that 129,188 people have tested positive. On average, it amounts to 18,455 positive tests per day, the lowest level since the beginning of the year. The average is down for the 25th day in a row.
deaths
RIVM reports 14 new deaths on Tuesday. This does not mean that these people have actually died in the past 24 hours, because it sometimes takes a while before a death from Covid-19 is reported to RIVM. On Monday, the institute registered 10 people who died as a result of a corona infection.
In Amsterdam, by far the most new infections were counted last 24 hours, namely 614. Rotterdam followed with 461 positive tests. Also in The Hague (399), Utrecht (343) and Nijmegen (200) a relatively large number of people received a positive test result.
Fewer and fewer people are testing
Fewer and fewer people are being tested for the coronavirus at the GGD and the number of positive results is falling even faster. In the past week, 129,188 people were told they had contracted the virus after a PCR test. That is a decrease of 42 percent compared to a week earlier, according to weekly figures from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).
The government wants to largely phase out the test streets of the GGD. From 11 April, the advice to go to the GGD for confirmation after a positive self-test will be cancelled. In the run-up to that date, the number of tests taken has already decreased considerably. In the last seven days, health services took 220,512 corona tests, about a third less than the week before.
More than 100,000 people who had themselves tested did so after a positive self-test. 93.5 percent of that group was indeed found to carry the virus. On average, 61 percent of the tests taken were positive. A week earlier, that was 65 percent.
Anyone who needs a proof of recovery, for example to travel, may in the future still be tested at the GGD. The same goes for vulnerable people who cannot do a self-test. With the new test policy, the government wants to place more responsibility on people themselves.
The question is to what extent the decrease is due to the fact that the virus actually circulates less, or because people go to the test street less often than before. Based on behavioral research, RIVM reported earlier this month that the willingness to take a test in the event of complaints is still high. Nearly nine out of ten people say they do this, usually with a self-test. Of the respondents who tested positive, eight in ten went to the GGD for confirmation. That was previously nine out of ten.