In 22 of the 25 security regions, more than 150 people per 100,000 inhabitants tested positive in the past week (risk level: “serious”). The regions with the highest number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants are Amsterdam-Amstelland and Rotterdam-Rijnmond (see Table 1).

Table 1: Number of confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the past 7 weeks, by security region.

The number of infections is increasing in all age categories. The highest number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants is still in the age category of 18 to 24 years.

Figure 1: Number of confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants, by age group, from 31 Aug to 11 Oct.

Hospital admissions and ICU admissions

The number of people who are or were admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 has also continued to increase. 1,114 COVID-19 patients were admitted to hospital nursing wards last week, according to the records of the NICE Foundation. That is a 40% increase compared to 803 hospital admissions the week before.*

The number of people admitted to intensive care with COVID-19 also increased. In the past week, the NICE Foundation recorded 192 new admissions to Intensive Care. In the week before that, there were 122 admissions to ICU; this is an increase of nearly 60%.*

Deaths

The deaths of 150 COVID-19 patients were reported to the Municipal Public Health Services (GGDs) in the past week.* The deceased patients were all over 35 years old.

* Not all of the reported hospital admissions or deaths occurred within the last week.

Excess mortality

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported last week that more people had died than expected, for the second week in a row. The higher mortality rate coincides with the emerging second wave of the novel coronavirus epidemic. See also: news item on monitoring excess mortality. Some percentage of the excess mortality may be related to COVID-19. How high that percentage is will become clear later on in the records stating cause of death.

GGD test lanes

In the week of 5 to 11 October, 280,539 people were tested in the GGD test lanes, nearly 58,000 more than in the week of 28 September to 4 October. The results of 239,639 tests are known: 33,038 people tested positive for COVID-19. That means that the percentage of positive tests has risen to 13.8%. That figure was 10.4% in the week of 30 September to 6 October.

Number of contagious people in the Netherlands

If a person catches the novel coronavirus, that person is contagious and can infect others for a certain period. Based on various data sources about how many people are infected with the novel coronavirus and how long a person is contagious, it is possible to estimate the number of contagious people in the Netherlands. The estimated number of contagious people on 1 October was 127,000 (range 91,000 – 162,000). From 1 June until last week, this was calculated on the basis of data from the first round of the PIENTER Corona study, the number of hospital admissions and the number of positive tests. Starting this week, the number of contagious people will be calculated based on the data from the second round of the PIENTER Corona study and the number of hospital admissions. Explanation: epidemiological report(p. 39) (only in Dutch). **

Reproduction number R

The reproduction number is 1.27 (range 1.26 - 1.31) and has not changed very much compared to last week. For the sixth consecutive week, the confidence interval is entirely above 1. A reproduction number of 1.27 means that 100 people who are infected with the novel coronavirus will collectively infect another 127 people.

**More information on the coronavirus models used at RIVM

To prevent the virus from continuing to spread, it is important for everyone to comply with the measures. Keep your distance. Work from home. If you have symptoms, stay home and get tested. Wash your hands frequently, and in any case when you arrive at home, after using the toilet, and before preparing food. Sneeze and cough into your elbow. 

	Last week1	Two weeks ago2
COVID-19 reports by Municipal Public Health Services (GGDs)
Newly reported COVID-19 infections	43,903	27,485
Number of hospital admissions to nursing wards (Source: NICE)	1144	802
Number of hospital admissions to Intensive Care (Source: NICE)	192	121
Deaths	150	89
GGD test lanes per calendar week3	week 41	week 40
Total number of tests of which results are known	239,639	223,274
Number of people who tested positive	33,038	23,264
Percentage of positive tests	13,8%	10,4%

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

¹GGD reports to RIVM between 6 October 10:01 and 13 October 10:00 as published 13 October 2020 in the weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 in the Netherlands
²GGD reports to RIVM between 29 September 10:01 and 6 October 10:00, as published 6 October 2020 in the weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 in the Netherlands
³As published on 13 October 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 .