The reproduction number for 13 November* is 1.04 (1.02-1.07) and is about the same as the week before. A reproduction number of 1.04 means that every 100 people with COVID-19 will infect 104 people with the virus. The estimated number of contagious people is over 100 thousand (lower limit: 72,500; upper limit: 129,000), which is comparable to the previous week.

The number of people admitted to hospital or intensive care (ICU) for COVID-19 decreased last week. There were 1007 hospitalisations, compared to 1291 in the week before. There were 183 admissions to ICU in the past week, compared to 193 the week before. Although these numbers are decreasing slightly, it should be noted that hospital and ICU admissions are about the same as in the first half of October, when it was decided that additional measures were needed to reduce the spread of the virus.

Situations where infection may have occurred

In November, approximately half of the new people who tested positive for COVID-19 (week 45: 47% and week 48: 52%) knew the situation in which infection had probably occurred (see Figure 1). The vast majority of infections took place at home, via transmission between family members and household members (more than 50%). Visits from friends or family are still a very frequent possible cause of infections. Ask visitors to wash their hands when they enter your home, and always stay at least 1.5 meters apart.

The third most likely location where infection may have occurred is still the workplace. It therefore remains important to work from home as much as possible to prevent infections. Although most people who can work from home are working from home about 75% of their working hours(PDF), this percentage appears to be decreasing somewhat.

Figure 1. Top 5 situations where COVID-19 infection may have occurred, as reported in November. Multiple situations may have been reported per person.

Testing

From 23 to 29 November, 258,874** tests were carried out in the GGD test lanes for which the results are known. That is over 7,000 more than the week before. 28,700 (11,1%) of those people tested positive for COVID-19. Testing capacity has increased rapidly in recent weeks. It is now almost always possible to get tested within a few hours. As of today, people who are in quarantine can get tested 5 days after their last contact with a patient. If the test result is negative for COVID-19, they can be released from quarantine. This also applies to people who have received a notification from the Coronamelder app. However, it is important to go back into quarantine and get tested (again) if symptoms do develop later. The capacity in the test lanes is currently more than sufficient to cope with this extra flow of people getting tested.

Age distribution

In all age categories, there is a decrease in the number of newly reported COVID-19 infections per 100,000 inhabitants compared to the week before. However, the number of newly reported infections in the age category of 13-17 years last week was higher than in week 45 and week 46. 

Figure 2. Number of newly reported infections per age category per week.

Follow the basic measures

It continues to be important to always get tested if you have symptoms that could indicate COVID-19 – even if you think it might just be a common cold. To prevent the virus from continuing to spread, it is important for everyone to comply with the measures and the basic rules. Stay at least 1.5 metres from others. If you have symptoms, stay home and get tested. Wash your hands frequently, especially when you arrive somewhere from outside.

Open data

RIVM publishes open data every day that is accessible to everyone. From 10 December on, we will be publishing this information every day at 15:15 hrs.

* The estimates for R from longer than 14 days ago are reliable. An estimated R based on data from less than 14 days ago involves more uncertainties. That is why we always look at the R from 14 days ago. 

** These figures are higher than the number of administered tests published by GGD GHOR on Monday morning, because the records were updated and are more complete on Tuesday morning.

Not all of the reported hospital admissions or deaths occurred within the last 24 hours

¹GGD reports to RIVM between 24 November 10:01 and 1 december 10:00 as published 1 December 2020 in the weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 in the Netherlands.
²GGD reports to RIVM between 17 November 10:01 and 24 November 10:00, as published 24 November 2020 in the weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 in the Netherlands.
³As published on 1 December 2020 in the weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 in the Netherlands. The figures from the GGD test lanes were reported during the past week and current week, and may be updated to include any test results provided later.