A further, 4,494 positive coronavirus tests were reported to public health institute RIVM in the 24 hours to 10am, Sunday morning, in line with Saturday’s figure and well under the average of 5,479 per day over the past seven days.

The reduction is a drop of 27% compared with a week ago, although the holidays and the rise of self tests and commercial testing centres may also have an impact on the number of regional health board tests being taken.

Nevertheless, the drop means that the number of daily infections is back at the level of two months ago and the RIVM expects the current trend to continue. ‘We are well placed up to the summer,’ RIVM statistician Jaco Wallinga told broadcaster NOS on Saturday.

The number of hospital patients also continues to decline, meaning more people are being discharged than admitted. In total, 2,183 people are now being treated in hospital, of whom 686 are in an intensive care ward. The last time that figure was below 700 was at the start of April.

The government is set to decide on Monday if the next round of changes to the coronavirus regulations can go ahead, and have said hospital admissions must be down by 20% to do so.

Operations

Despite the downturn, Ernst Kuipers, head of the national acute care association, says he does not expect operations which have been delayed because of pressure on hospitals will be rescheduled until IC occupancy drops below 500.

The RIVM says the drop in infection rates is due to the impact of the vaccination programme. So far 7.3 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the Netherlands, according to health ministry estimates.

On Saturday, nearly 150,000 people were vaccinated for the first, or second time. The government has said all adults who want a vaccination will have had a first or second dose by the beginning of July.