Positive tests for coronavirus fell by 11.1% in the last seven days, but hospitals are still under strain from the surge in admissions since the start of April, according to the RIVM’s latest weekly update.

The public health agency recorded 47,108 new cases in the past seven days, down from 52,987 in the previous week. However, the positive test rate rose to 12.3%, its highest level since the beginning of January, as fewer tests were taken.

The number of patients being admitted to hospital and transferred to intensive care both declined by nearly 22%. But hospitals are only starting to experience the impact in terms of beds occupied, which are still close to their peak level at the end of April.

The government is under pressure to ease social distancing restrictions further, but the Outbreak Management Team reiterated its view on Tuesday that ministers should wait until hospital occupancy is 20% below its peak. ‘Compared to the peak we are still not seeing a solid decline,’ OMT member Aura Timen told NOS.

On Tuesday 2,480 people were being treated for Covid-19, just 8.3% lower than last month’s highest figure of 2704, while 748 patients are in intensive care, 11.1% down from the peak of 841.

The biggest drop in admissions was in the 60-79 age group, who are currently most likely to end up in hospital with Covid-19, where there was a 28% decline from 904 to 654.

The number of deaths recorded in the past seven days was 28% higher than the previous week at 164. The statistics agency CBS has recorded higher than expected numbers of deaths in the under-65 and 65 to 80 age groups for several weeks.

Fewer schoolchildren infected

Infections declined in most age groups last week, with the exception of the 20-24 band, where the number of cases rose by 7.7%. The biggest drops were among schoolchildren from 5 to 14 and people in their late seventies, both of which showed a 24% decline.

The latest daily figures from the RIVM show there were another 5,586 more cases in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, taking the seven-day average figure to 6,730, its lowest level in nearly five weeks.

The reproductive number R, which records whether infections are increasing or declining, crept back over the critical level of 1 at 1.01 on April 26, the most recent date for which it can be reliably calculated.

Across the 25 health board regions the number of infections per 100,000 people ranged from 153.1 in Drenthe to 390.9 in Brabant-Noord. Seventeen regions are above the ‘very severe’ threshold of 250 on the government’s four-stage alert scale.