In the Infection Radar survey last week, the percentage of people who reported possible symptoms of COVID-19 last week (2.7%) decreased compared to the week before that (3.6%). The number of people who were tested positive for COVID-19 reported to the Municipal Public Health Services (GGDs) also decreased (-27%) compared to the week before.
This decrease may be partly due to the summer period, when many Dutch people are on holiday. However, there is also a decrease in the number of reported positive tests in nursing homes, a figure that is not expected to be affected by holidays (or hardly at all). Looking at hospital figures, the number of new hospital admissions of patients with SARS-CoV-2 decreased slightly, dropping by 12% compared to the week before, while the number of new patients with SARS-CoV-2 in the ICU remained relatively low (+8%) compared to the week before.
Sewage surveillance
In sewage surveillance result of week 28(11 – 17 July), an increase of 17.8% was observed in the national average virus load as compared to week 27. In the first half of week 29 (18-20 July), the average virus contaminants decreased slightly, dropping by 14.6%. In both the weeks, 29 and 28, sewage surveillance figures were highest in and around Amsterdam and The Hague. The BA.5 Omicron sub-variant was observed most frequently in sewage in week 28, while the BA.4 sub-variant was detected less often again.
Virus variants from pathogen surveillance
More than 80% of all samples examined in week 27 (4 – 10 July) contained the BA.5 sub-variant. This variant became dominant in the Netherlands in June 2022. So far, the BA.2.75 sub-variant has only been found once during pathogen surveillance: in a sample taken in week 25 (20 – 26 June).
Numbers
According to the RIVM updates, last week 28,019 persons reported positive corona test results and 631 persons were newly hospitalised. Among the hospitalised patients, 43 were admitted to Intensive Care units. The COVID-19 related mortality number increased to 37 as compared to 30 deaths week before.
Source: RIVM.nl
Translated: Yawar Abbas
