No coronavirus deaths were reported to public health institute RIVM in the 24 hours to Saturday morning – for the first time since last September.

The RIVM has had an average of two deaths a day for the past seven days, compared with three deaths a day in the previous week.

However, the figure does not mean that no-one died from coronavirus on Friday because doctors are not required to inform the RIVM and there is often a delay in reporting anyway, broadcaster NOS reported.

So far, over 27,000 people have died of coronavirus in the Netherlands, according to calculations by national statistics agency CBS.

The RIVM received 569 reports of new cases up to Saturday morning, down 84 on Friday. The number of positive tests over the past week is down 31% on the previous seven day period.

In the meantime, health minister Hugo de Jonge has said some five million people in the Netherlands are now fully vaccinated against the virus and a further four million people have had their first jab.

Some 87% of the population have indicated they do plan to be vaccinated against the virus.

Single dose

An extra 175,000 doses of the single shot Janssen vaccine have also now been delivered to the Netherlands, meaning more people can now make an appointment to be vaccinated.

Hundreds of thousands of people have tried to make an appointment for one of the 200,000 shots in stock in the Netherlands – mainly youngsters heading abroad on holiday.

The Janssen vaccine has been removed from the regular Dutch programme because of fears about very rare side effects, but it has been approved for use by people who are aware of the risks and who still want to go ahead.