The official coronavirus death toll in the Netherlands continued to inch towards 6,000 on Monday, rising by six to 5,962, the national health insitute RIVM said in its latest update.

A further nine people were admitted to hospital for treatment, taking that total to 11,744.

On Sunday, the RIVM reported five more deaths and eight hospital admissions, while the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care wards fell by 11 to 159. At the height of the pandemic, almost 1,500 people were being treated in IC wards and some had been moved to Germany.

In the Sunday and Monday updates, a further 288 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the total to 46,545, The positive test total is likely to go up more sharply now that testing has been widened to include everyone who has symptoms.

The phone line – 0800-1202 – was busy on Monday morning but the national health board said there is sufficient capacity to test everyone who gets in touch.

On Saturday health minister Hugo de Jonge urged everyone with complaints, even if they only consider them to be mild, to have a test and to stay home until they had the results.

📞 0800-1202 📞

Dat is het nummer dat je moet bellen om je te laten testen op #corona. Zo houden we zicht op de verspreiding van het virus en kunnen we het de kop indrukken waar het opliert. ⤵️https://t.co/ElZexqrzc9

#alleensamen pic.twitter.com/Q8hf5EnAkH

— Hugo de Jonge (@hugodejonge) June 1, 2020

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