Eleven of the Netherlands safety board regions are now classified as ‘very serious’ centres for coronavirus, and all but one of the remaining 14 are now flagged as ‘serious’, following the surge in coronavirus cases of the past few days.

The Amsterdam-Amstelland region is one of the worst affected areas, with 646 infections per 100,000 people, the latest coronavirus dashboard figures show. Groningen too is now a ‘dark red’ region, as are Utrecht, Rotterdam-Rijnmond, Kennemerland, Gooi en Vechtstreek and Hollands Midden.

On Thursday, the EU’s centre for disease control ECDC will publish its new coronavirus map of Europe and the Netherlands, now a mix of amber and green, may end up with four red provinces.

That means that other countries can then recommend their citizens don’t visit and that they can impose extra conditions on people from the Netherlands who want to visit them, which is likely to impact on people’s holiday plans.

Meanwhile, some hospitals and healthcare institutions are again requiring visitors to wear face masks indoors.

Masks were first made compulsory in shops and other indoor spaces in December last year, and the requirement was lifted on June 26, apart from on public transport, as long as social distancing could be observed. But in practice, most people have stopped wearing them.

The OLVG hospital group in Amsterdam, Groningen care organisations ZINN and Zonnehuisgroep Noord have also brought them back, as has Radboudumc in Nijmegen and the Amstelland hospital in Amstelveen.

Retailers, however, say they do not plan to reintroduce masks unless they are required by the government.