THE HAGUE – The Omicron wave is far from over in the Netherlands, with the country recording more than half a million COVID-19 cases in the last week, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) said on Tuesday.

From Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, the number of positive COVID-19 tests reported amounted to 530,015, an increase of 45 percent compared to the week before.

The RIVM also reported a daily number of over 100,000 positive tests for the second day in a row. From Monday to Tuesday, 105,840 new COVID-19 cases were recorded.

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The number of new hospital admissions also rose by 11 percent, from 951 in the previous week to 1,056 this last week, RIVM said. Meanwhile, the number of new ICU admissions rose to 78 in the last week, an 18 percent increase from the week before.