Daily coronavirus figures say little because of testing patterns, say experts
Dutch NewsThe strong fluctuations in the number of positive coronavirus tests continued at the weekend, with Saturday’s total dropping nearly 1,300 to 4,499, only for 5,609 cases to be reported on Sunday, figures from public health institute RIVM show. The RIVM and regional health boards say the daily figures do not give a proper indication of how coronavirus is spreading in the Netherlands because they do not take testing patterns into account. More tests are carried out at the beginning of the week which means the number of positive tests is likely to be higher on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a health board spokeswoman told broadcaster NOS At the same time, the proportion of positive tests is slightly higher at the weekend. If you want to see a trend, you need to look at th weekly figures,’ RIVM spokeman Harald Wychgel told the broadcaster.