A further 11,395 positive coronavirus tests were reported to public health institute RIVM this weekend, showing that the downward trend is still continuing.

In the 24 hours to Saturday 10am there were 5,941 new cases, followed by a further 5,457 on Sunday.  The weekend’s figures take percentage drop in postive tests over the past seven days to 25%.

Hospital admissions continue to go down as well, and there are now 2,094 people being treated in hospital, of whom 585 are in intensive care. This means that more people are being discharged from hospital than admitted.

The death rate too is down, averaging 69 a day over the seven days to Sunday, compared with 81 in the week earlier period.

The RIVM will give its next weekly update on Tuesday, when the prime minister is also due to hold a news conference to say more about the options for the Christmas break.

Meanwhile, the RIVM’s behavioural analysis unit says that people who lose income because they are forced to stay home in quarantine or while waiting for test results, should get financial compensation.

This would be one way of making it easier for people who are required to stay home until they are proved to be virus free to actually keep to the rules, the RIVM said according to Saturday’s Volkskrant.

Research published by the RIVM last month showed six in 10 people would stay home if a someone else in the household tests positive but only half said they would stay in if contacted by a health worker as part of a track and trace programme. And only four in five said they would stay home if they had tested positive for the virus.

‘Most people take the measures very seriously,’ researcher Marijn de Bruin told the Volkskrant. ‘And 90% to 95% don’t want to infect anyone. The people we question often say that they just had to do something outside their homes, and that they picked a quiet moment. These are considerations which it is all too easy to understand.’