Almost 35,000 positive coronavirus tests were registered with public health institute RIVM in the 24 hours to Friday morning, but this includes some cases from earlier this week when reporting was disrupted by an IT failure.

Nevertheless, the total of 34,954 is up 10,000 on Wednesday’s figure, when there were no reported IT problems, and which was a new record.

The rise takes the number of positive cases this week to an average of 21,487 a day, up 63% on the previous seven day period.

Despite the rise in positive cases, hospital admissions continue to decline. On Friday morning, 1,526 people were being treated for coronavirus in hospital, down 25 on Thursday’s total. Of them, 419 are being treated on an IC ward, according to figures from patient registration agency LCPS.

The government imposed tough new restrictions on the Netherlands in December in an effort to head off a surge in hospital admissions while the booster campaign got up to speed. And health officials said at the start of this week they expected a new peak in hospitals mid January.

So far, however, there is no sign that hospital admissions will start going up again.

Elsewhere

In Britain the number of infections appears to be levelling off at around 180,000 a day, which would mean a plateau of 45,000 cases a day if transferred to the situation in the Netherlands.

In Denmark too, infections appear to be levelling off, Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst told broadcaster NOS. There are around 19,000 cases a day in Denmark, which would translate to 57,000 in the Netherlands.

Both Britain and Denmark have far fewer restrictions than the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, the government’s coronavirus dashboard shows some 38% of adults have now had a booster dose.