In the Infection Radar survey last week, the percentage of participants with COVID-19 like complaints was 3.6% which is close to that of the week before, which was 3.7%. The number of people who were tested for COVID-19 and the number of newly reported positive COVID-19 tests decreased slightly (-11%) compared to the week before. The number of tested people also decreased slightly (-6%).
The number of new hospitalisations of patients with COVID-19-related issues still rose by 29% compared to the previous week. The number of new patients with SARS-CoV-2 in intensive care remained relatively low and stable (-7%) compared to the previous week.
Sewage surveillance
In sewage surveillance result of week 27(4 – 10 July), a slight decrease of 2.8% was observed in the national average virus load as compared to week 26. In the first half of week 28 (11-13 July), the average virus contaminants increased by 14.6%. In both weeks, 27 and 28, sewage surveillance figures were highest in the metropolitan area, especially in Amsterdam and the wider surrounding area. The Omikron variant BA.5 was most frequently observed variant in the sewage water in week 27. The BA.4 variant was found to a much lesser extent, and the BA.2.12.1 variant seems to be gradually diminishing.
Virus variants from pathogen surveillance
The percentage of the BA.5 variant, which became dominant in June, is still increasing. A sub-variant of the BA.2 has recently been seen in various countries: the BA.2.75. This variant has been found in India, Australia, Japan, Canada, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, among others. This variant has now also been found in the Netherlands .
Numbers
According to the RIVM updates, last week 38,470 persons reported positive corona test results and 721 persons were newly hospitalised. Among the hospitalised patients, 40 were admitted to Intensive care units. The COVID-19 related mortality number increased to 30 as compared to 17 deaths week before.
Source: RIVM.nl
Translated: Yawar Abbas
