On March 30, 2021, members of the public wander in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam on a nice day. Getty Images | EVERT ELZINGA | AFP Despite mandating a “test for admittance,” a festival in Holland has stunned officials after 1,000 coronavirus infections were linked to the event. 20,000 people attended the Verknipt outdoor festival in Utrecht in early July, which lasted two days. Everyone who came had to present a QR code proving they were vaccinated, had a Covid infection lately, or had a negative Covid test. Despite the fact that the festival was meticulously planned and regulated, 1,050 persons who attended have now tested positive for Covid, according to Utrecht’s regional health authority. “We can’t assume that all of these people became infected at the event; it’s possible that they got infected on the way to the festival, or in the evening before going to the festival or at an after-party. So they’re all linked to the festival, but we can’t claim they were all sick at the same time “stival,” said Lennart van Trigt, a spokeswoman for the GGD (Utrecht’s health board). Despite this, he stated that the number of cases was “very astonishing” and that it could rise significantly in the next days. According to van Trigt, the event exposed flaws in the “test for admittance” process, with persons allowed to take Covid testing up to 40 hours before the event, allowing for the risk of infection in the meantime. “We’ve recently discovered that this time frame is excessive. We should have had a 24-hour [period], which would have been much better because 40 hours allows people to visit friends and go to pubs and clubs. So, in a 24-hour period, people may do less activities and it is safer “he stated Another issue was that persons in the Netherlands could receive a Covid pass for the festival just after getting vaccinated, despite the fact that immunity from the Covid vaccine takes several weeks to develop. “We were a little too trigger happy,” van Trigt admitted, adding that he had learned his lesson. Mayor Sharon Dijksma of Utrecht has been singled out for special criticism for attending the ill-fated festival. https://twitter.com/Boyanbc/status/1415006680597729283 In the previous few weeks, the Netherlands has experienced a dramatic increase in Covid cases, particularly since it eased limits on bars and clubs at the end of June, causing Covid to spike among young people. On Monday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Health Minister Hugo de Jonge apologized for the government’s “miscalculation” in relaxing restrictions too soon. De Jonge also expressed regret for his “dansen met Janssen” (“dancing with Janssen”) promotion, in which he encouraged young people to get the one-shot Janssen Covid vaccination so they could go out partying. The government declared last Friday that nightclubs and live concerts would be closed until at least August 13 after acknowledging that “the coronavirus infection rate in the Netherlands has increased more quicker than predicted since society reopened virtually totally on 26 June.” The country’s “R” value is now 2.17, indicating that every individual infected with Covid-19 is expected to infect at least two others. A total of 10,492 instances were reported in the country on Wednesday, which is more than the average number of daily cases (8,395) for the previous seven days. The majority of new occurrences occur in adults between the ages of 20 and 29./n
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