Spain's COVID-19 contagion rate continues to fall, with the two-week rate dropping 19 points on Tuesday compared with the previous day.

The 14-day coronavirus contagion rate was 653.81 cases per 100,000 of population, according to health ministry data, compared to 673.52 cases on Monday.

The proportion of hospital beds used for coronavirus patients fell to 8.69 per cent on Tuesday from 8.90 per cent the day before.

However, slightly more intensive care beds are being used to treat patients, with the proportion rising to 20.4 per cent on Tuesday from 20.02 per cent on Monday, health ministry data showed.

The Delta variant had been growing and became dominant in Spain last month but now is receding.

The number of people who tested positive with COVID-19 in the country rose to 4,523,310 and the total number of people who have died from coronavirus stood at 81,773.

The Netherlands also reported a fall in the number of new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday for the second consecutive week.

There were 21,000 cases during the past seven days, about 44 per cent fewer than in the previous week, according to the Institute for Health and the Environment (RIVM).

Meanwhile the number of those hospitalised due to the virus has only marginally risen.

The Dutch seven-day incidence rate, of new cases per 100,000 people over a week, was 121.

There were 2263 new cases recorded during the past day, according to Tuesday's figures, with Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague worst hit.

Of those who have just been infected, 11.5 per cent were fully vaccinated, according to the institute.

The Dutch vaccination campaign continues, with two-thirds of all adults fully vaccinated and 85 per cent of adults having received at least one dose of the vaccine against COVID-19.

It comes as Chinese authorities announced mass coronavirus testing in Wuhan as an unusually wide series of COVID-19 outbreaks reached the city where the disease was first detected in late 2019.

The provincial capital of 11 million people in central China is the latest city to undergo city-wide testing.

Three cases were confirmed in Wuhan on Monday, its first non-imported cases in more than a year.

China has largely curbed the virus at home after the initial outbreak that devastated Wuhan and spread globally.

Since then, authorities have tamped down and controlled the disease whenever it pops up with quick lockdowns and mass testing.

The current outbreaks are still in the hundreds of cases in total but have spread much more widely than previous ones.

Many of the cases have been identified as the highly contagious Delta variant.

The National Health Commission said on Tuesday that 90 new cases had been confirmed the previous day.

with DPA and AP

Australian Associated Press