Fewer people died last week than would have been expected in normal circumstances, and this may be down to the impact of the coronavirus vaccine, national statistics agency CBS said on Friday.

It is the first time since September that the number of people dying is below the normal level for the time of year, the CBS said. The figures are still provisional.

Last week, 3,200 people died, down 300 on the previous week and 200 below the average for the last week in February.

‘We can’t prove it is down to the vaccination… but it would be logical for that to have an impact,’ CBS sociologist Tanja Traag told news website Nu.nl.

In particular, the death rate is below average among nursing home residents and the over-80s. These groups were among the first to be vaccinated.

The public health institute RIVM said earlier this week that there had been a drop in the infection rate among nursing home residents, and fewer people over the age of 70 are also testing positive for coronavirus.