Dutch coronavirus infections jump to highest level since April

The number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands jumped 51% last week to their highest level since the end of April, Dutch health authorities said on Tuesday.

Newly confirmed infections increased to 5,427 in the week to Tuesday, up from 3,597 in the previous week, while the total number of tests rose 10% to little over 180,000.

Coronavirus cases in the Netherlands had been stable at about 3,500 per week in recent weeks, after the easing of lockdown measures in July was followed by a steady rise to over 4,000 in early August.

The largest increase of infections last week was among people aged 20 to 24, the health authorities said, while most of the newly infected were found to have contracted the virus at home.

The new rise coincided with the reopening of schools throughout the country, but health authorities said they had not found a significant increase of cases related to schools.

Infections known to have occurred at schools were mainly among adults, they said.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands rose to 76,548, with 6,244 deaths.