Coronavirus risk level falls in nine regions, rises in Zeeland

The coronavirus risk level was reduced from Severe to Serious in nine of the 25 security regions of the Netherlands. The remaining regions were all classified at Severe, including Zeeland which had been at a lower risk level last week. The risk assessment is updated by the Dutch government every Wednesday, and it was predicted the risk level of several regions would fall.

The Severe designation is determined by weekly positive coronavirus tests per 100 thousand residents, and weekly hospital admissions per million people. Any region with over 250 per capita infections or over 27 hospitalizations per million residents will be categorized at Severe.

Amsterdam-Amstelland was ranked the worst of the 25 regions, though infections there plunged by 58 percent. Hospitalizations more than doubled in a week, with 60.7 registered per million inhabitants.

In Zeeland, there were 147 infections per capita, but 28.7 hospitalizations, the reason it was moved into the Severe risk group.

The areas which were downgraded were Flevoland, Friesland, Gelderland-Midden, Gelderland-Zuid, Haaglanden, Limburg-Noord, Noord- en Oost-Gelderland, Twente and Zuid-Holland-Zuid.

The region ranking the best was Drenthe, which remained at the Serious level. It still needed a further 10 percent drop in weekly infections to downgraded from the second worst of four levels to Concern.