MAP | For the second week in a row, the number of new corona cases increases in the east of the Netherlands | Region

The largest increase in percentage took place in the Flevoland safety region. In the period from March 8, 10:01 am to March 15, 10:00 am, 7397 inhabitants tested positive, a week earlier there were 6257. An increase of more than 18 percent.

In IJsselland, 16,453 inhabitants tested positive, a week earlier there were 14,593. An increase of almost 13 percent. The increase (more than 10 percent) was the smallest in North and East Gelderland. There were 23,450 corona cases last week.

Although the increase in Flevoland was the largest in percentage terms, this area has relatively few corona cases compared to the other two safety regions. In Flevoland 1727 people tested positive per 100,000 inhabitants, in North and East Gelderland (2821) and IJsselland (3077) that number is considerably higher.

If we zoom in to the number of corona infections between this morning and yesterday morning, there are few differences compared to 24 hours earlier in the east of the Netherlands. In IJsselland (1981 at 2055) and North and East Gelderland (2708 at 2859) the number of positive tests is slightly lower. In Flevoland (961 and 913) slightly more corona cases were registered than 24 hours earlier.

Meppel is the only municipality that is colored dark red on the map in this region. This is because of 201 positive tests: converted 585 per 100,000 inhabitants. The adjacent municipality of Steenwijkerland also has a relatively high number of new corona cases with 180.

The RIVM has registered 52,948 positive corona tests in the past 24 hours. That is about 7,000 more than the day before, but certainly 13,200 less than on Tuesday a week ago.

The number of corona infections rose for about two weeks in a row after carnival and the relaxation of the corona rules. The number of confirmed infections and the weekly average have fallen over the past four days. With that, the corona revival seems to be over.

While the cabinet is phasing out the corona measures, the number of corona patients admitted to hospitals has increased further. Nursing units received 291 new patients who have contracted the virus, the highest number this year.

Currently, 1952 people infected with the virus are in hospital. On balance, this is 32 more than a day earlier, according to figures from the National Coordination Center for Patients Spreading (LCPS).

The vast majority of people who are now in hospital with corona are treated in nursing wards. In intensive care units, the figure has been relatively low and stable for weeks. There were 156 corona patients there on Tuesday.

The total number of corona patients in hospitals is now the highest since the end of December last year. An important difference is that about 500 of the patients were in the ICU at the time. The prevalent omikron variant of the coronavirus rarely makes people so sick that they end up in ICU.