Coronavirus deaths increase to 1,339 in Netherlands

   THE HAGUE, April 2 -- The coronavirus death toll rose dramatically in The Netherlands on Thursday, with 166 fatalities reported in the past 24 hours, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said.
   The daily death toll fluctuates in The Netherlands from 132 on Sunday, 93 on Monday, 175 on Tuesday, 134 on Wednesday to 166 on Thursday. The total number of reported deaths in The Netherlands now stands at 1,339.
   The number of confirmed coronavirus cases (patients who are or were admitted to hospital) has increased by 625 to 5,784 and the total number of positive tests grew by 1,083 to 14,697.
   According to the RIVM, the measures introduced by the Dutch government are starting to have an effect. "The number of patients admitted to hospital and the number of deceased patients reported in The Netherlands are increasing less rapidly than would have been expected without the measures in place," the RIVM stated.
   The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units in the country's hospitals has risen by 82 to 1,273 since Wednesday, Ernst Kuipers of the Dutch National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS) said at a press conference in Rotterdam on Thursday.
   According to Kuipers, The Netherlands still has a shortage of intensive care (IC) beds and if the current trend continues this will, according to the LCPS, also be the case when the epidemic is expected to peak in two weeks' time.
   Currently, there are around 2,100 intensive care beds available, of which 1,600 are reserved for COVID-19 patients. "We hope to have 2,400 IC beds by the weekend," Kuipers said.  Xinhua