"Risky behavior" behind spiking Covid-19 cases in Netherlands, health service says

Netherlands residents are adhering to the measures in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus less and less, and it is this "risky behavior" that is behind the spike in Covid-19 infections in the country over the past weeks, GGD GHOR Nederland, the umbrella organization for the GGD health services, said on Wednesday.

The GGDs are responsible for the vast majority of Covid-19 tests done in the country. They also trace the source of infection and the contacts the infected person had. According to the health service, this source and contact tracing is revealing an alarming pattern.

People are not social distancing. There are more and more parties and social gatherings with more and more close contacts. Sometimes people refuse to self-isolate or quarantine after the GGD warned them that they may be infected. And in some cases, people refuse to tell the GGD who they had contact with.

"From all source and contact investigations that the GGDs are currently conducting, we primarily see that people's behavior is not in line with the basic rules of the government," GGD GHOR Nederland said. "The GGDs are doing everything possible to prevent further spread. Also increasing to maximum capacity. But if people do not observe the government's rules of conduct, this will hinder GGDs in their work and it will be impossible to prevent further spread of the coronavirus."