1.
the number of patients (with a particular illness, at a hospital, in a region, etc.)
A statistical noun for a count of patients. Combines 患者 ("patient") with the productive suffix ~数 ("number of, count of"). Heard most often in news reports and medical statistics — for example, the number of patients with a contagious disease, the number of patients at a hospital, or the number of patients in a particular age bracket.
患者数が増えている。
The number of patients is increasing.
今年のインフルエンザの患者数は例年より多い。
This year's number of flu patients is higher than usual.
冬になると病院の患者数は急激に増加する。
Once winter arrives, the number of patients at hospitals rises sharply.
厚生労働省は毎週、感染症の患者数を都道府県別に発表している。
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announces the number of infectious-disease patients by prefecture each week.
患者数 is a routine compound used wherever patient counts are discussed — public health reports, hospital statistics, news coverage of outbreaks. It is built from the everyday word 患者 plus ~数, a highly productive suffix for forming "number of X" nouns.
FORMATION:
- 患者 ("patient") + ~数 ("number of, count") → 患者数
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 患者数が増える / 減る: the number of patients increases / decreases
- 患者数が急増する: to rise sharply
- 患者数ピーク: peak in patient numbers
- 累計患者数: cumulative patient count
- 新規患者数: number of new patients
- 1日あたりの患者数: number of patients per day
RELATED ~数 COMPOUNDS:
- 人数: number of people
- 死者数: number of deaths
- 感染者数: number of infections
- 利用者数: number of users
- 来場者数: number of visitors / attendees
SIMILAR / RELATED TERMS:
- 患者: a patient (the base noun)
- 感染者: an infected person (a more specific term in disease-outbreak contexts)
- 陽性者数: number of positive cases (used during the COVID-19 pandemic)
- 重症患者: a seriously ill patient
USAGE NOTES:
- During major disease outbreaks, the daily 患者数 or 感染者数 becomes a closely watched statistic in Japanese news.
- The ~数 suffix is freely productive: speakers can readily form new ~数 compounds (e.g., 外来患者数 "outpatient count") even when those compounds are not formally listed in dictionaries.