A week before the Dutch government tightened measures again, 20,000 people attended the techno festival Verknipt on July 3 and 4. However, beats and good vibes weren’t the only things going around — 1,100 people returned home with coronavirus.

The high infection rate at the festival sparked a so-called source and contact investigation by GGD Utrecht reports NU.nl.

Not talk of a ‘superspreader’

The investigation revealed that the dramatic outburst of the virus after the festival wasn’t due to a ‘superspreader’ as first suspected. Instead, the GGD concluded that at least 130 people were probably already infected before attending Verknipt — and they somehow got in.

This result came about from research conducted amongst 400 of the infected attendees — of whom 34% had probably been infected before attending Verknipt.

The question then remains: How could 130 people attend a festival with access testing — while being positive for coronavirus?

Lax measures to blame

There are two answers to this. Firstly, 90% of the people investigated told GGD Utrecht that they’d attended other festivals before Verknipt and, most likely, that’s where they contracted the virus.

Secondly, the festival site used Testing for Access. Not only have there been problems with the early Testing for Access system but, at the time of Verknipt, test results were allowed to be up to 40 hours old.

As a result, there was a higher chance that people could contract the virus between testing and attending the festival. (Shortly after the festival, this was reduced to 24 hours).

People could also attend the festival without a test as long as they’d been vaccinated. However, “fully vaccinated” at the time of Verknipt meant the second you’d received your second jab (or first with Jannsen) — no two week waiting period necessary. This likely contributed to the number of infected attendees.

Thankfully, the investigation by GGD Utrecht didn’t show any signs of large-scale fraud with the QR codes generated in the CoronaCheck app.

Did you get to attend any festivals before measures tightened in the Netherlands? Tell us in the comments below!

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The RIVM has released its weekly coronavirus figures from July 20 to July 27. The number of infections has decreased dramatically compared to the previous week.

Over the past week, the RIVM reported 37,343 new infections in the Netherlands. This is a significant decrease compared to the previous week’s number of 69,731 new infections. The percentage of positive tests decreased to 13,6% compared to 14.1% the week before.

Deaths

The number of patients who have died from COVID-19-related complications has gone up. This week, 21 people passed away, compared to 14 people the previous week.

Hospitalisations

Hospitalisations, as well as the number of admissions to the ICU, have also increased. The past week saw 423 new admissions to the nursing ward and 115 new patients in the ICU. The week before, there were 205 and 31, respectively. This marks a doubling of the number of patients admitted to hospital.

New travel advice

From today onwards, all EU countries are considered yellow or green, rather than orange, by the Dutch government. The government’s decision to reclassify previous red countries, such as Spain, means that the requirement for “necessary” travel is gone and travelling to the Netherlands will be easier.

However, Dutch travel advice differs from that of the European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). If you are planning on travelling from the Netherlands, always check the travel restriction from your destination country.

The change to the colour coding system will be in effect until August 8 whereafter the rules for returning to the Netherlands will tighten.

More than 50% of adults in the Netherlands are fully vaccinated

The Dutch vaccination schedule is continuing at full speed with 56,3% of adults being fully vaxxed. In addition, 83% have already had their first jab and are in line for their second.

Vaccine fraud in the Netherlands

While the number of vaccinated adults is increasing, GGDs have also discovered a new kind of vaccine fraud that allows people to leave the site with proof of vaccination — without having received their jab.

After discovering the slip, vaccination sites have implemented new measures to avoid fraud.

AstraZeneca vaccines are going in the bin

Across the country, Dutch doctors are forced to throw away tens of thousands of AstraZeneca vaccines. After the vaccine was phased out of the Netherlands’ vaccination scheme, unused doses have been sitting in the fridge at your local GPs.

Now, Dutch doctors are frustrated in the face of what they see as an enormous waste and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport have called it “a real shame.” The doses cannot be delivered to other countries or otherwise utilised.

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