There has been a 29% increase in the number of people admitted to hospital with coronavirus over the past week, public health institute RIVM said on Tuesday.

In total, 638 people were hospitalised with coronavirus in the seven days to Tuesday and a further 83 were admitted for another reason and then found to have the virus. Intensive care admissions were stable at 30 over the seven day period.

However, there was an 11% drop in the number of confirmed positive coronavirus tests – 38,470 compared with 43,220 in the previous week. This is the first decline in seven weeks.

PCR testing is currently only recommended for people who work in healthcare, who cannot use a self test, or who need a negative test result to travel.

An RIVM spokesman told news website Nu.nl that the holiday season could explain the downturn in the number of tests carried out.

The crucial R number, which shows how fast the virus is spreading, was 0.99 on July 4, the latest date for which an estimate is available.  Research on waste water also indicates that the infection rate may be stabilising, after rising sharply earlier this month. The biggest concentration of the virus in waste water was in the Amsterdam region.

The BA.5 variant of the virus was the most common but another variant, BA.2.75, which has been found in India, Australia and Japan has also now reached the Netherlands, the RIVM said.