The RIVM has released its weekly coronavirus figures from July 7 to July 13. The number of infections has risen exponentially compared to the previous week.
Over the past week, the RIVM reported 51,957 new infections in the Netherlands. This is an unprecedented increase compared to the previous week’s number of 8,541 new infections. The percentage of positive tests rose to 13.4% compared to 4.5% the week before.
Deaths
The number of patients who have died from COVID-19-related complications has gone down slightly. This week 11 people passed away, compared to 15 people the previous week.
Hospitalisations
Hospitalisations, as well as the number of admissions to the ICU, have also decreased. The past week saw 60 new admissions to the nursing ward and 12 new patients in the ICU. The week before, there were 47 and 7 respectively.
New restrictions
The Dutch government has done a full 180 in the last month. After saying goodbye to all restrictions on June 26, Rutte and De Jonge announced the reintroduction of some measures on Friday.
These include the complete closure of nightclubs and restricted opening hours in other hospitality venues which must now be closed between 12 AM and 6 AM. Sports events will also have to ensure fans are at least 1.5m away from each other. All restrictions are in place until at least August 13.
Neither the prime minister nor the health minister took questions from the press on Friday — an odd move considering it was a press conference. Yesterday, Rutte apologised for a “bad press conference” as well as the government’s lack of good judgment over the relaxing of restrictions.
Highest number of cases since Christmas
As you can see from these figures, the Netherlands has seen a sharp increase in coronavirus infection rates. On Saturday of last week, the Netherlands recorded its highest number of daily cases since December last year with the number of positive tests increasing by over 500% in the space of one week.
Amsterdam was hit the hardest, recording over 1,000 infections in one day last week. Rotterdam and Groningen were next in line logging over 500 in each city on the same day.
Testing for holiday temporarily stopped
For a while, those who were travelling could get a PCR test for free. That has been temporarily postponed due to the overwhelming demand for coronavirus tests in the last week.
Lead Healthcare says the lab has been overwhelmed and is unable to deliver on the promise of a test result in 24 hours. Holidaymakers have been left still waiting for their test results at the airport before boarding the plane. Lead Healthcare is currently urging travellers to check whether they can use an antigen test as proof of immunity in the country of destination.
Are you surprised by the rise in coronavirus figures? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Feature Image: IgorVetushko/Depsoitphotos
So so disappointed with the Dutch government, they saw with their own eyes what was happening in UK, and yet they relaxed the rules. And I hope they are proud of them selves. People like us who have family far away and have not seen them for almost two years, will again have to wait. Very very sad
I somehow expected this mess up to happen in all honesty. I’ve realized that so many people have this mindset of it won’t happen to us just cause it happened to them.