Dozens of Maastricht, Nijmegen university students quarantined over Covid concerns

Dozens of university students in Nijmegen and Maastricht could be among the 5,427 new coronavirus infections from last week announced by health institute RIVM on Tuesday. Some 170 students from Radboud University were told to enter into quarantine as a precaution.

Eleven students from Maastricht University tested positive for the coronavirus responsible for Covid-19 on August 28, the university said. That rose to 24 within three days, and jumped to 38 students through Monday. Some of those students were no longer contagious, the university said, and those who were asymptomatic for over 24 hours were released from quarantine.

"We very much appreciate the fact that students are taking the responsibility to get tested if and when they have symptoms. At the same time, it is important to prevent as many situations as possible in which infections may occur," the university said. It noted that its academic community equals about 25 thousand people in total.

The students at Radboud University in Nijmegen were ordered into home isolation because they either attended Café Van Rijn, where there was a cluster of infections, or because they came an in contact with someone who had been there, De Gelderland reported. Mayor Hubert Bruls shut the bar tight on Monday after ten patrons and employees tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus.

The management of the bar reportedly did a poor job of maintaining records of its visitors. This made source-and-contact tracing particularly difficult, the newspaper said.

Approximately 31 percent of all new coronavirus infections reported last week were found in people between the ages of 15 and 24. Some 1,065 positive tests were found among people aged 20-24, an increase of 53 percent compared to previous week.