The official death toll from coronavirus in the Netherlands rose by 112 on Friday to 4,289, the public health institute RIVM said in its latest update.

The number of hospital admissions rose by 123, taking the total to 10,281, the RIVM said. A further 806 people have tested positive for the virus.

Both the death and hospital admission figures continue to show a steady decline and this is reinforced by new figures from the national statistics agency CBS which show a drop in the overall number of people dying.

The CBS said that some 4,300 people died in the week April 13-19, which is around 1,400 more than usually die at this time of year. Earlier this month, general death rate figures indicated at least 2,000 more people had died than would have been expected.

Complete picture

Given that the official coronavirus death toll only includes people who have been tested for the disease, the CBS figures give a ‘more complete picture’, the agency said. The official RIVM figures give a death total of 794 for week 16.

The number of people being treated in intensive care wards is also showing a steady drop, falling to 1,008 on Thursday afternoon. Of them, 966 are in Dutch hospitals, the rest over the border in Germany.

Acute care chief Ernst Kuipers said if the drop continues at this pace, there will be around 500 Covid-19 patients in IC wards within two weeks.