There are some signs that the summer coronavirus wave may have reached a peak, with hospital admissions and nursing home infections both down, public health institute RIVM said in its Tuesday update.

The number of positive tests reported to the regional health boards fell by 27%, while the number of tests carried out was down 33%, although this may be because many people are on holiday, the RIVM said.

‘However, there is also a visible decrease in the number of reports from nursing homes, which one would expect to be unaffected or hardly affected by holidays,’ the RIVM said. The reproduction rate is also down, as is the amount of virus particles found in waste water.

The number of patients admitted to hospital fell 12% on the previous week, although intensive care admissions rose marginally to 43.

Hospital admissions reached 631 in the seven day period but almost 100 patients were found to have coronavirus after being admitted for other problems.