Nearly 1,000 people infected with Covid after Utrecht festival

Nearly a thousand people who attended the Veknipt festival in Utrecht on July 3 and 4 tested positive for Covid-19, health service GGD announced. 448 who attended the festival on the first day now have the coronavirus, and 516 people who attended on the second day. The festival attracted about 20 thousand attendees, NOS reports.

The organizers of the Verknipt festival is shocked by the number of infections. The organizers and municipality of Utrecht were in talks about the permit and coronavirus measures until just before the start of the event, the organization wrote in a response. "This resulted in, among other things, a 45 page document with additional coronavirus protocols."

And the organization stuck to those protocols, they said. Testing for Access QR codes were also strictly monitored. "However, we could not see from the QR codes whether people got in through a recovery certificate or Testing for Access or on the basis of a Janssen vaccination."

The GGD confirmed to NOS that the organization indeed held to the coronavirus measures. "The access test was allowed to be 40 hours old and young people currently have many contacts. The explanation may be there," spokesperson Lydia van der Meer said to the broadcaster. She added that the source of the infections is hard to determine, so she can't say whether everyone got infected at the festival.

Utrecht mayor Sharon Dijksma also attended the festival on July 3, posting a picture on Twitter. "It's quite exciting to see so many people close together after such a long time. People who only gained access with a QR code because even the 1.5 meters no longer applies here," she tweeted at the time.

This festival is the largest single source of coronavirus infections in the Netherlands so far. Previously some 200 people tested positive for Covid-19 after spending a night partying in an Enschede night club. That was about a third of the people in the club that night.