The number of coronavirus patients currently being treated in Dutch hospitals has topped 1,000, patient coordination centre LCPS said on Wednesday. Of them, 210 are in intensive care.

LCPS chief Ernst Kuipers said on Monday he expected the number of hospital patients to reach 1,000 this week and that some patients are already being moved to other hospitals with more capacity.

At the same time, the number of newly registered positive cases hit 4996 in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, taking the average per day over the past week to 4,168. A week earlier the daily average was 2,893.

Ministers said on Friday the number of daily infections would hit 5,000 before the impact of last week’s measures, such as a 10pm closure time for bars, was felt.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has delivered a new supply of anti-viral drug Remdesivir to the Netherlands following reports in the Financieele Dagblad on Tuesday that supplies had dried up.

The drug is used to treat patients who are not in intensive care but who have breathing difficulties. While not a cure, they do appear to reduce the length of time people stay in hospital.

The commission is also about to sign a new agreement with pharmaceuticals firm Gilead for more supplies to treat 3,400 patients, Reuters reported.