More than 5,000 coronavirus cases were recorded in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning while the seven-day average continues to hover around the 4,500 mark.

The latest figures from the public health agency RIVM also showed the number of patients in intensive care increased by four to 560, almost its highest level for a month.

Another 227 people were admitted to hospital but the overall number of patients dropped by 50 to 1913.

The number of confirmed cases was 5,333, 6.7% higher than last Wednesday’s figure and the second highest since January 23. The average number of cases in the last seven days has barely moved in the last two weeks.

The RIVM reported another 31 deaths, taking the total to 15,948. In the last week an average of 36 deaths have been recorded per day, compared to 42 a week ago.

The steady decline of the virus in nursing homes is continuing, with 310 locations reporting at least one new case in the last fortnight. A week ago the figure was 380, while in mid-January more than 850 nursing homes were infected.

To date 1,696,498 vaccine doses have been administered, the RIVM said, with 283,600 jabs scheduled for this week.