The Netherlands is no longer a red coronavirus risk country, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in its latest weekly update.

Friesland and Groningen have now been slotted in to the green zone, while the rest of the Netherlands is amber, alongside parts of France, Belgium and most of Spain. The downgrade means the number of positive tests in the Netherlands has dropped below 150 out of 100,000.

Public health institute RIVM registered 716 new coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to Thursday morning, the third day in a row that the figure has hovered around 700.

However, the average number of cases continues to drop – there were almost 5,000 positive tests in the last seven days, and it was September last year that the total was so low, the RIVM said.

The number of coronavirus patients in Dutch hospitals fell overnight to 392 and just 12 people were admitted in the past 24 hours, patient monitoring organization LCPS said on Thursday. That, in turn, is the lowest number of new admissions since October last year.

In total, 158 people are being treated in an intensive care, a drop of 22 on Wednesday’s total, the LCPS said.

Antibodies

The number of people with coronavirus antibodies in their blood is increasing rapidly, research by blood donation agency Sanquin indicates. Almost 70% of blood donors now have antibodies, compared with 54% a month ago.

Even among the 18s to 30s, not all of whom have been vaccinated, 43% have antibodies, Sanquin said.

Meanwhile, 100,000 appointments for a jab with the single dose Janssen vaccine have been made since the phone lines were opened on Wednesday, health minister Hugo de Jonge has confirmed. Many of those are youngsters planning a summer holiday.

The regional health boards have 200,000 doses of the vaccine on offer, which has been removed from the regular Dutch vaccination programme because of very rare health risks.