The number of patients taken to hospital with coronavirus fell by 12% last week to 1,214, the RIVM said in its latest weekly bulletin.

Intensive care admissions were virtually unchanged at 97, two higher than the week before.

The total number of hospital patients with Covid-19 was 1,626 on Tuesday, down by 1.8% in the last week – the first time in four weeks that the figure has declined on a weekly basis. There are currently 171 patients in intensive care.

The RIVM also recorded a 36% drop in positive tests, but the number of tests carried out at local health services (GGD) centres was down by 37%. Altogether 58.3% of all recorded tests were positive.

The downward trend was most pronounced in children, where infection numbers have been much higher since the Omicron variant arrived in December. In the 10 to 14 age group positive tests were down by 57% since last week, compared to a 10% decline among the over-75s.

The infection rate ranged from 2,577 per 100,000 people in Friesland to 1,271 in Rotterdam-Rijnmond, against a national figure of 1,764.

Another 95 deaths from Covid-19 were confirmed last week, up from 78 the week before, but the RIVM’s figures are incomplete because health boards are not obliged to report every coronavirus-related death.