A total of 22,274 people tested positive for coronavirus in the 24 hours to Thursday morning, down 1,288 on Wednesday’s total, according to new figures from public health institute RIVM.

Thursday’s figure takes the average number of daily cases over the past week to 22,218, or up 24% on a week ago. Given previous weekly rises were in the region of 40%, this may be a sign that the increase in infections is now slowing.

Regional health boards are currently carrying out some 92,000 tests a day, of which around 22% are proving positive.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Limburg has one of the highest number of coronavirus cases in Europe.

The southern Dutch province recorded 22,482 positive tests in the past two weeks, equivalent to 2012 people per head of 100,000 residents, or approximately one in 50 people.

Sixteen other European provinces also have a rate of over 2,000 cases per 100,000 people. Top of the list is the Austrian region including Salzburg, where there were 3,237 positive tests per 100,000 people.

The number of positive cases is rising across Europe. Sardinia, the last part of the EU to be green on the ECDC’s coronavirus map, has also now been downgraded to amber.

Hospitalisations

The number of people hospitalised with coronavirus in the Netherlands rose by 20 to 2,545 in the 24 hours to Thursday morning, but more of them are being transferred to an IC ward.

The number of IC patients rose by 25 overnight to 530, according to patient monitoring centre LCPS.

In total, 304 people were admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours, triple the total from a month ago.