Estimated number of patients who contact the general practitioner for the first time with COVID-19-like symptoms

They record reported and observed symptoms and diagnoses of the consulting patients. Using this data, Nivel calculated the weekly (Monday through Sunday) number of patients with symptoms that could indicate COVID-19, based on the diagnostic codes ‘acute upper respiratory system infection’, ‘other respiratory infection(s)’, ‘influenza’, ‘pneumonia’, ‘other viral disease(s)’, ‘other infectious disease’, ‘fever’, ‘shortness of breath’, and ‘coughing’, in combination with textual information provided that could indicate COVID-19.

The case definition for COVID-19-like symptoms was: incident cases consulting their GP with symptoms related to COVID-19, who have not (yet) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 virus. The numbers were updated on a weekly basis and published on the Corona Dashboard of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. Since June 2020, all persons in the Netherlands could be tested for SARS-CoV-2 virus free of charge.