The number of people admitted to hospital with COVID-19 has increased by 152 in the past 24 hours to 2,573. That is a sharp increase, which will probably continue in the coming days, says Ernst Kuipers of the National Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS) on Monday.
After the number of corona patients in hospitals dropped slightly over the past week, the number of patients admitted increased by 45 on Saturday and 79 on Sunday.
Looking at the corona measures that took effect on December 15, Kuipers expects the increase to continue into the first week of January. “The people who are now in intensive care have already been infected before the lockdown measures,” said Kuipers.
54 new patients were admitted to the intensive care unit (ic) in the past 24 hours. Almost all of these patients have moved on from nursing wards.
Kuipers expects a higher peak than the second wave
Kuipers expects the peak to likely be higher than the second wave at the end of October. “So it’s really a matter of looking for that last available bed.”
It is busy all over the country, says Kuipers. This also makes it difficult to spread patients, because hardly any beds are available in the other regions.
To prevent worse, the number of positive tests must, according to him, “go down rapidly”. “But even then we will be left with overcrowded hospitals for weeks.”
Whether it will be possible to reduce the number of infections also depends on the new British corona variant that has emerged in the Netherlands. It may be a lot more contagious. “If that is the case, it is a concern. It could lead to a sustained higher number of infections.”
– .
