Coronavirus cases fell by almost one-third in the past seven days, raising hopes that lockdown measures can be eased next week.

The latest weekly report by the public health agency RIVM recorded 43,621 new infections, a 31.9% drop from the previous week’s total of 64,087.

Hospital admissions were also down by 23% at 1,520, while the number of patients admitted to intensive care fell from 321 to 275. However, the number of recorded deaths from Covid-19 increased from 435 to 565.

The proportion of tests returning a positive result fell from 16.6% to 14.5%, still well above the World Health Organization’s target level of 5%. Crucially, the R number, which represents the estimated rate at which the virus is spreading, was calculated to be 0.91 on October 23. If the number is below 1 it means the number of infections in the population is declining.

The latest daily figures showed a slight drop of six to 4,695. At the peak of the second wave, on October 30, 11,119 new cases were recorded.

Health minister Hugo de Jonge said the extra restrictions imposed on November 4, such as closing museums, swimming pools, libraries and zoos, would be lifted next week if the falling trend continues. However, bars and restaurants will stay closed for another month.

‘My expectation is that we can end those measures after two weeks, as we said, and return to the partial lockdown we had before,’ he told NOS.

‘But we still need to keep going for a while so we can collectively drive down the infection rate even further. You might say we have turned the corner, but we need to keep up a strong downward trend because the number of infections is still far too high.’

De Jonge also said extra regional lockdown measures such as a curfew or shutting secondary schools would not be needed in the areas with the highest infection levels, such as Rotterdam and Twente.