Most of the Netherlands at government's worst coronavirus risk level

The Netherlands raised the alert level of 23 out of 25 security regions to its highest coronavirus risk level. Only Drenthe and Zeeland escaped the Severe dark red designation, and were categorized instead as Serious.

Eleven regions were dark red prior to Wednesday. By the afternoon, twelve more were added to the list. Last week, only Drenthe was at level two, making it an area of concern.

Its per capita infection level this week rose to 211 per 100 thousand residents, only slightly worse than in Zeeland.

The Amsterdam-Amstelland region surpassed all others for most infections. This past week, 810 people tested positive for the coronavirus infection per capita. That was followed by Groningen (536), Kennemerland (528), and Rotterdam-Rijnmond (513).

Groningen is the only province out of 12 to be categorized at the Dark Red level by the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. At least seven more provinces should move to the ECDC's highest risk level when its map is updated on Thursday.

Data released by the Ministry of Health indicated that Drente and Zeeland may be able to evade the designation, with Limburg and Overijssel being closer to the threshold. Any province with more than 500 infections per capita over a two-week period will go Dark Red.

With more portions of the Netherlands at the ECDC's most serious risk level, more countries in the European Union could impose restrictions on people traveling from the Netherlands across their border.

Despite the Netherlands changing the designations of several regions to the Severe risk category, the Cabinet is not expected to tighten up coronavirus restrictions any further at a national or regional level.