The number of positive coronavirus tests notified to public health institute RIVM rose for the third day in a row in the 24 hours to Friday morning.

In total, 6,109 new cases were registered with the RIVM, a rise of 458 on Thursday’s total. The number of positive tests are still going down on a week by week basis, but Friday’s figure does beat the daily average in the past seven days.

At the same time, however, fewer new patients were admitted to hospital and the number of people being moved to intensive care remains stable, the national patient coordination centre said.

There are now 2,181 coronavirus patients being treated in hospital, of whom 609 are in intensive care.

A further 54 people have died from coronavirus, taking the weekly average to 68, down on the week earlier figures.

Health officials say much of how the death toll develops depends on how far the virus spreads in nursing homes. So far, 679 nursing homes have reported at least one case of coronavirus in the past two weeks. At the height of the first wave, 828 nursing homes were dealing with coronavirus patients.

The excess death rate – the number of unexpected deaths given the statistics – reached over 700 in the week to November 8, according to national statistics agency CBS. Most of these deaths are likely to be attributable to coronavirus.

The increase is ‘particularly high’ among people over the age of 65, the RIVM said.

Confirmed

During the first wave, some 10,000 people are now thought to have died of coronavirus, but only 6,000 of them were confirmed cases. So far in the second wave, almost 2,900 excess deaths have been recorded.

The official coronavirus death toll in the Netherlands so far is 8,375.

Experiments

Meanwhile, the government has said that if the number of new infections has gone down sufficiently by mid January, experiments can begin with bigger seated audiences at football matches, concerts and in cinemas.

The event and entertainment sector have developed a plan to allow testing to see if larger events can be organized safely, and junior economic affairs minister Mona Keijzer has agreed to the three experiments, if infection rates have gone down to the lowest risk level.