Most of the Netherlands at Serious or Severe coronavirus risk level

The coronavirus outbreak is considered to be Serious or Severe in almost the entire country. The volume of coronavirus cases diagnosed last week and the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients means that 19 of the 25 health and safety regions in the country are at one of the two highest risk levels.

The Netherlands has four risk levels. From highest to lowest they are Severe, Serious, Concern and Caution. The regions are assessed based on per capita infections and hospitalizations in each region, with the worst of the two figures being used to determine risk level. Six regions are at Severe, 13 are on Serious and six are at Concern.

The last time there were so many regions on the top two rungs was in early August. That was due to the many positive coronavirus tests the week before at the peak of the Delta variant wave. The number of positive tests has fallen since then, but the number of hospital admissions has hardly decreased over the last four weeks.

Six regions are now at Severe. That is three fewer than last week. Flevoland, Amsterdam-Amstelland, Haaglanden, Rotterdam-Rijnmond and Zuid Holland Zuid remain at the highest level. This is the ninth consecutive week for both Amsterdam-Amstelland and Rotterdam-Rijnmond. Twente joins the list this week because of the high number of hospital admissions there.

Drenthe is taking a big step down. The province goes down two levels at once, from Severe to Concern. Gelderland-Zuid, Zaanstreek-Waterland and Gooi en Vechtstreek went down one step Severe to Serious. Groningen and Noord-Holland Noord also went down one level from Serious to Concern.

The outbreak is moving in the opposite direction in IJsselland, Midden en West Brabant, Brabant-Noord and Zuid Limburg. The risk level in those regions increased from Concern to Serious.

Nothing changed in the rest of the country. The situation will remain Serious for at least another week in Friesland, Gelderland-Midden, Utrecht, Kennemerland, Hollands Midden and Zeeland. Likewise, Noord en Oost Gelderland, Brabant-Zuidoost and Limburg-Noord will hold at Concern until at least next Wednesday.

The risk levels currently do not affect coronavirus measures. All existing restrictions are being applied throughout the country, and may also be relaxed nationally at the Cabinet’s discretion.