Dutch police handed out a total of 95,000 fines to people for breaking the curfew during the three months it was in operation.

The fines have generated over €9m for the treasury since the curfew was introduced on January 23 and scrapped at 4.30am on April 28. People caught breaking the curfew without a valid reason could be fined €95.

The curfew was the first in the Netherlands since World War II and the measure, plus the civic unrest that it caused, placed a ‘considerable burden’ on already overstretched police officers, according to a police update.

‘The police registered more than 1,500 demonstrations in the period between January and April,’ the update said. ‘That is double the protests in the first four months of 2020, and 20% more than the more than in the same period in 2019.’

Meanwhile, the public health institute RIVM has said the impact of the curfew on public health is still being calculated and it is too early to say if it was ineffective.

The agency’s statement follows comments by acute hospital care chief Ernst Kuipers, who told a television show on Wednesday the curfew had not had an effect on hospital admissions.

The calculation was that the curfew would reduce hospital admissions by 10%,’ he said. ‘But if you look at how hospital admissions have progressed during the period, you can see no effect through the introduction or the change in the time [from 9pm to 10pm].’

Nevertheless, Kuipers said, the curfew had to be introduced to head off the risks presented by the more infectious form of the virus first identified in Britain.