The upward march of coronavirus in the Netherlands ‘continues unabated’, but it is still too early to assess the effect of the recent lockdown, public health institute RIVM said on Tuesday, in its latest weekly update.

In total, the number of new infections is up 20% in the seven days to December 22, once late reporting due to IT problems has been factored in, the agency said.

There was an 8.4% increase in the number of tests in the past week, taking the total to 509,644 in the week to December 20. But the rise in positive tests is not only explained by the increase in testing and the positive test rate rose from 12.1% to 13.6%, the RIVM said.

The increase in the number of notifications per 100,000 people is across all age groups, but highest among teenagers under the age 18 while the r factor, or rate at which the virus is spreading, remains at 1.25.

In the week to December 20, a further 1,549 people were admitted to hospital with coronavirus, 223 more than in the previous seven-day period. The number of intensive care patients rose by 57 to 287 and 472 people died from coronavirus, up from 398 in the previous week.

There has also been an increase in the number nursing homes and residential care centres with at least one case of coronavirus, rising from 152 to 207. A nursing home is considered a new location if there had not been any cases for 28 days prior to the new case.