The number of newly notified coronavirus cases in the Netherlands hit 8,141 in the 24 hours to Saturday morning, according to figures from national health institute RIVM.

The new figure could indicate the number of new infections is starting to level off, although it will take several days to establish if this is the case because of time lags in reporting.

The number of hospital patients rose by 15 to 1,568, of whom 352 are in intensive care. A further 28 people have died after testing positive for the virus, taking the daily average over the past week to 24. This is up seven on the previous week.

Amsterdam, again, accounts for by far the most positive tests, with 683.

RIVM virologist Jaap van Dissel told broadcaster NOS on Saturday that the partial lockdown introduced by the Dutch government earlier this week could run until December.

‘If you do the calculations, you can expect a longer period in which the numbers are high,’ he said. ‘It would be guessing to say how long that could be, but we are taking the fact that it could be December into account.’