Limburg biggest Covid hotspot in Western Europe

Limburg had the most coronavirus cases diagnosed in western Europe. In the province, 22,482 residents tested positive in the past two weeks. That comes down to 2,012 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants or one in every 50 Limburg residents. It is also a record for the Netherlands - the most positive tests in a province since the start of this epidemic.

Limburg and the eleven other Dutch provinces remained at the highest warning level as expected. Just like last week, they're dark red on the European coronavirus map. The map is determined every Thursday by the European health service ECDC. The map shows a total of 212 regions. Limburg and sixteen other regions have over 2,000 infections per 100,000 people.

Most infections are in central Europe. In the Austrian state of Salzburg, 3,237 people per 100,000 residents tested positive between 8 and 21 November. Upper Austria comes in second place. Other countries with many positive tests are Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Croatia.

The number of confirmed infections is also increasing in other European countries. Sardinia was the last region in all of Europe to be green last week, the lowest warning level, but now went to orange.