Another 2,878 coronavirus cases were reported by the public health agency RIVM, almost identical to the figure for last Wednesday.

In the past week the number of positive tests has increased by 2%, while the positive test rate has dropped to 12.7% from more than 14% at the weekend.

There were 643 coronavirus patients in hospital on Wednesday morning, a drop of 28 in the last 24 hours, of whom 207 are being treated in intensive care, five fewer than on Tuesday.

In the last week the RIVM has recorded an average of five deaths a day from Covid-19, down from seven a week ago, while the number of nursing homes recording an infection in the previous 14 days has gone down from 151 to 138.