The number of positive coronavirus tests continues to rise, with the total hitting 25,751 in the past seven days, the public health institute RIVM said in its latest weekly update on Tuesday.

The rise, up 44% week on week, is due to both the scrapping of most preventative rules three weeks ago, and seasonal affects, the RIVM said. The increase is visible across all regions and all age groups, but concentrated in the under-50s, where the vaccination rate is lowest. Last week the increase was 48%.

In total, 198,000 people were tested for coronavirus in the past week, up 25% on a week ago. One in eight of them tested positive for the virus, up from one in 10 a week earlier.

The number of people admitted hospital is also going up – 385 last week compared with 281 in the previous seven day period. There was also a rise in IC admissions, from 71 to 81. In total, 610 people are now in hospital with coronavirus, of whom 146 are on an IC ward, according to figures from national patient registry LCPS,

The key R ratio has also risen to 1.20, which means 100 people with the virus will infect a further 120. The R ratio has a time lag of two weeks.

Last week, 48 people died from coronavirus, double the previous week’s total.