The Netherlands is on the edge of orange on the European Corona map

The Netherlands can make significant progress, Thursday, on the map of Corona cases in Europe. The entire state has been completely red, the second-highest warning color, for weeks, but nine counties may fall back into orange. The last time the Netherlands was doing well was about a month ago.

The number of positive tests in the Netherlands has decreased significantly in the past two weeks, as has the percentage of positive tests. About 4 percent of all tests conducted in the past two weeks revealed infection with corona. In July, at the height of the fourth wave, one in ten tested positive.

Friesland, South Holland and Flevoland will remain in the red on Thursday anyway. They have a lot of positive tests. In Friesland, more than 1,700 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in the past two weeks, roughly 267 per 100,000 inhabitants. If less than 4 percent of all coronavirus tests in the Netherlands are positive, the other nine provinces could turn orange.

The number of positive tests fell faster in Drenthe, Overijssel and Northern Holland. About 20 percent fewer new cases were identified than those identified in last week’s map. North Brabant and Zealand have the relatively few positive tests. For every 100,000 residents there, 120 people were told they were infected.

The ECDC Health Service, the European counterpart of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, publishes the map every Thursday. The service is looking at the number of confirmed infections and the percentage of positive tests in the previous two calendar weeks. The card has four colors. From low to high, these are green, orange, red and dark red. Countries use the map to determine their policies. When the Netherlands turned dark red in July, this prompted countries like Germany and France to introduce stricter rules for Dutch people wanting to cross the border.