SARS-CoV-2 also outside of the respiratory season 

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 does not (yet) have a stable seasonal pattern and increases also occur outside the respiratory season. Before the 2024/2025 respiratory season, there were increases in the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the Netherlands during the summer (weeks 24-32) and the autumn (weeks 36-46) of 2024. Afterwards, measures of SARS-CoV-2 decreased in all sources. From early 2025 until the end of the respiratory season, the circulation of the virus remained at a low level. The two increases in summer and autumn 2024 were relatively low compared to the increases in 2022 and 2023. 

Spread of SARS-CoV-2

The amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in wastewater during the peaks of the period of increased virus circulation in summer and autumn 2024 was lower than during the peak at the end of 2023 (figure 1). A similar pattern was seen in Infectieradar. The highest proportion of Infectieradar participants reporting a positive self-test for coronavirus during the increases in summer and autumn 2024 was 1.7% and 1.5%, respectively. This was lower than the proportion of 3.6% seen during the peak at the end of 2023 (figure 2). In the specimens collected in general practice, SARS-CoV-2 was detected relatively often during the summer increase and at the start of the autumn increase (figure 3). At the end and after the respiratory season, the number of patients visiting the general practitioner with respiratory infections is relatively low, and therefore few specimens are collected. The weekly percentage of specimens positive for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 fluctuates strongly during this period. This is visible in week 19 of 2025 (figure 3). At that time, a high percentage of the specimens were positive for SARS-CoV-2, but this was based on only three specimens.

In the virological laboratory surveillance, at the peak of the increases in summer and autumn, SARS-CoV-2 was found in patients about 500 times per week (figure 4). Since the 2023/2024 respiratory season, more laboratories have started reporting the number of tests performed in addition to the number of positive test results. This now makes it possible to also show the percentage of specimens that test positive for SARS-CoV-2. The highest weekly percentage positive during the increases in summer and autumn was 18.3% and 17.1%, respectively (figure 5). 

Hospital admissions and mortality SARS-CoV-2 

The National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS) monitors the number of hospital admissions of patients with a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Since July 1, 2024, about 50 hospitals still provide automated data to LCPS; before that, data were collected from all hospitals. During the SARS-CoV-2 increases in summer and autumn 2024, the number of hospital admissions in nursing wards rose (figure 6). The number of admissions at the peaks of these increases was less than half the weekly number of admissions during the peaks of the increases in the respiratory years 2022 and 2023 (figure 6). The COVID-19 clinical registry of Stichting NICE stopped on 1-4-2024. Because patient characteristics are missing from the LCPS data, this report can no longer provide an overview of the age distribution of admitted patients.

From this year, RIVM receives data via NICE on the number of patients admitted to Intensive Care (IC) due to an acute respiratory infection (SARI). In the data from 15 ICs, no clear increase was seen in the weekly number of SARI-IC admissions during the SARS-CoV-2 increases in summer and autumn 2024.

During the increases in coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in summer and autumn 2024, there was no excess mortality for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Subvariants of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

The national SARS-CoV-2 pathogen surveillance, shows that since the beginning of 2024, the SARS-CoV-2 subvariant JN.1 has been found in more than 90% of the studied SARS-CoV-2 positive specimens. From autumn 2024, the JN.1 subvariants KP.3 and XEC were mostly present (figure 7). The trends observed in wastewater generally corresponds with that in variant surveillance. There are no indications that JN.1 variants cause more severe disease than earlier Omicron variants. 

Coronavirus vaccination

The autumn round of COVID-19 vaccination for people aged 60 and older and specific risk groups ran from 16 September to 6 December 2024. The vaccination coverage for the total group aged 60 and older in the autumn round was 46.6%, and was highest (60.7%) for those aged 80-84. Estimates of vaccine effectiveness for the 2024 autumn round are not yet available. The most recent overview of data on vaccine effectiveness is described in the COVID-19 vaccination knowledge update for the Health Council.