The Dutch official death toll from coronavirus has risen by 144 to 3,459, the public health institute RIVM said in its Friday update.

At the same time, hospital admissions continue to slow, with 156 more people admitted to hospital, taking the total to 9,465.

A further 1,235 people have tested positive for the disease, bringing the number of positive tests to 30,499. Testing was widened earlier this month to include more healthcare workers and will increase still further as more supplies become available.

Realistic figure

Meanwhile, a more realistic picture about the death toll is emerging, given that the official RIVM figures only include people who were tested for the virus.

The national statistics office CBS said on Friday that the number of people dying in the Netherlands in the second week of April was again some 2,000 more would have been expected – indicating the actual coronavirus death toll could be twice as high.

This is the second week in a row that the actual death toll is 2,000 more than expected under normal circumstances, which indicates that the number of people being killed by coronavirus is stabilising, the CBS said.

‘A considerable proportion of these deaths is likely to be related to Covid-19,’ the RIVM said. ‘The exact proportion will be clear later when the death certificates are analysed.’