Netherlands remains dark red on EU Covid map for fifth week

The Netherlands stays dark red on the map of coronavirus infections in Europe. For the fifth week in a row, the entire country is on the highest alert level.

The infection figures in our country are falling. Still, that decrease is not yet sufficient for a color chance on the map of the ECDC, the European counterpart of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The organization looks at the number and percentage of positive tests in the two previous calendar weeks. For the new map, this is from November 29 to December 12.

At the beginning of December, there were over 20,000 positive tests daily in the Netherlands. The decrease in the number of infections that started after that is still insufficient to compensate for that high number on the coronavirus map.

Limburg again has the highest number of positive tests in the country, compared to the number of inhabitants. Nearly 26,000 infections were detected there in the past two calendar weeks. That comes down to 2,317 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants or 1 for every 43 Limgurg residents. That is 13 percent lower than last week's map.

Of the 211 European regions on the map, Limburg has the fifth-highest infections. Zeeland is the next Dutch region in the ranking and is currently ninth. There are 136 regions in Europe on dark red, 61 on red, 12 on orange, and two on green.

The European coronavirus map is published every Thursday by the ECDC. The map has four colors. From low to high, these are green, orange, red, and dark red.