Almost entire Netherlands expected to be dark red on Europe's Covid map
Another five provinces will likely move up to the highest alert level on the map of coronavirus cases in Europe. Flevoland, Friesland, Zuid-Holland, Noord-Brabant, and Noord-Holland are still red but will probably turn dark red on Thursday due to the high number of positive tests.
The five provinces will join Limburg, Gelderland, Overijssel, Zeeland, and Utrecht, which already turned dark red last week. Only Drenthe and Groningen are expected to stay red for the time being.
The European health service ECDC started making these maps over a year ago. It is the first time that so many Dutch provinces will be on the highest level.
Limburg remains the biggest hotspot. In the past two calendar weeks, the period that the ECDC is looking at, 11,653 residents tested positive. That amounts to 1,043 new cases for every 100,000 people or 1 in every 96 Limburg residents.
Flevoland is the fastest climber. Just under 3,100 people tested positive there in the past two calendar weeks, increasing over 55 percent from last week's map. In Overijssel, the number of positive tests rose the least, at about 25 percent.
The ECDC, an organization to which the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) belongs, looks at the number and percentage of positive tests in the two previous calendar weeks for the maps. The European coronavirus map has four colors. From low to high, these are green, orange, red, and dark red.
Reporting by ANP