Travellers from Australia, Canada and Argentina will have to spend 10 days in quarantine after the foreign ministry classed them as ‘very high-risk’ for coronavirus on Wednesday.

The change will take effect from Thursday following a rapid rise in infections in all three countries, which have moved from yellow to orange – essential travel only – on the Dutch risk scale. Travellers will be able to shorten the quarantine period if they test negative after five days.

Australia has had low case numbers throughout the pandemic, but since mid-December the number of positive tests per 100,000 people has gone up from less than 100 to more than 4,000.

Argentina has also seen a steep rise in positive tests in the last month, while in Canada the numbers are falling again after reaching a peak of 1,200 a week ago – still lower than the current infection rate in the Netherlands.