A total of 9,398 new coronavirus cases were reported to public health institute RIVM in the 24 hours to Sunday morning.

That is down 908 on Saturday, when the daily total hit the same height as at the end of December. Averaged over the past week, the number of positive tests per day has hit 5,630, which is sevenfold the average in the previous week.

The percentage of positive tests at regional health board test centres has also risen sharply to 14.2%, according to the government’s coronavirus dashboard.

Sunday’s figure is less than some commentators had been expecting, given the surge in new cases over the past few days, but Sunday and Monday often have lower figures than the rest of the week because of the weekend time lag.

The number of positive tests in the Netherlands has been going up since the government relaxed most of the coronavirus measures on June 26.

On Friday it reversed some of those decisions, closing nightclubs and ending the ‘test for entry’ programme for all but sit down events in an effort to reverse the upward trend.