The official death toll from coronavirus in the Netherlands has risen by a further 181 to 3,315, the public health agency RIVM said in its Thursday update.

The figure only includes people who have been tested for the virus, and the true total could be almost double, when suspected cases are taken into account.

A further 182 people have been admitted to hospital, taking the total number of hospital cases to 9,390, while a further 1,061 people have tested positive for the virus.

Testing has been expanded since last week to include more healthcare workers, but currently only around 5,000 people a day are being tested.

Supplies

Meanwhile, the government has been able to secure sufficient supplies to expand testing capacity, according to a document from test coordination agency seen by broadcaster NOS.

The order, when completed, will allow 2.7 million coronavirus tests to be carried out within the next six months – or some 14,000 tests a day. Health minister Hugo de Jonge told a press conference on Wednesday evening that a shortage of material was the main reason why testing had not been increased in line with capacity.

Capacity is currently 17,500 tests a day and this is being increased to 29,000 in the coming weeks, De Jonge said.

Some 140,000 people have been tested for coronavirus in the Netherlands, of whom nearly 30,000 have now tested positive.