Coronavirus record broken for 4th straight day with 2,544 infections; Most deaths since May

The Netherlands registered 2,544 new infections of the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus, breaking the record for the most daily infections for the fifth time in seven days, preliminary data from public health agency RIVM showed. It was a 45 percent increase over the infection total last Thursday, and seven percent higher than Wednesday's tally.

Sixteen more deaths were also tied to the coronavirus disease, the most since the end of May. From the end of February through Thursday, 6,312 deaths in the Netherlands have been definitively tied to the viral infection. The health institute said that 25 more hospitalizations were linked to respiratory illness Covid-19, raising the total up to 12,524.

This week, there have been 9,363 positive tests recorded by the municipal health services and reported to the RIVM. That total is 56 percent higher than last week. In the past seven days, over 15 thousand new infections have been determined.

On Thursday, Amsterdam had the most new infections linked to residents of any single city with 251, followed closely by Rotterdam with 248. Another 136 positive tests for the novel coronavirus infection were found in The Hague.

Over 103 thousand people have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic, though the RIVM believes that about a million people in the Netherlands have been infected.