Most corona measures have been released. For many people this feels like a liberation after a long time in which all kinds of restrictions applied. At the same time, this weekend it will be two years since the first corona infections took place in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has registered a total of almost 6.2 million infections in the Netherlands.
Per thousand inhabitants, someone was infected or reinfected with a variant of the virus at least 350 times, according to an analysis by ANP/LocalFocus. In Drenthe, the number of registered infections is relatively highest in the municipality of Hoogeveen. There, someone tested positive 319 times per thousand inhabitants. This number was lowest in Westerveld: almost 227 infections per thousand inhabitants.
Municipalities in the Bible Belt in particular had a relatively high number of infections, according to an interim position of the corona figures that RIVM has been keeping up with since the outbreak. In the north of the Netherlands, the number of infections has been lower on average than elsewhere in the past two years: of the ten municipalities with the fewest infections per thousand inhabitants, eight are in Drenthe, Groningen or Friesland.
View the number of infections and deaths of all municipalities in the Netherlands on this map:
Most Drenthe infections in Emmen
In our province, the ‘contamination density’ in Hoogeveen is therefore the highest, seen over the past two years. The absolute number of infections is by far the highest in the municipality of Emmen, which is also the largest municipality. More than 32,000 inhabitants there have tested positive for the corona virus in the past two years. In Assen and Hoogeveen there were almost 18,000 and in Meppel and Coevorden more than 10,000. In the other Drenthe municipality, the number of infections was below 10,000. Westerveld has the lowest number in the province with more than 4,500 infections.
The actual infections are expected to be higher than can be concluded from the figures. This is because everyone with corona complaints could only be tested at the GGD from 1 July 2020, after the first corona wave. Before that, testing was only self-evident if people with corona symptoms were hospitalized.
Deaths in Drenthe
The number of deaths registered by RIVM throughout the Netherlands is over 21,000. In Drenthe, the number of deaths is highest in the municipality of Emmen: 96 people have died there from the consequences of corona. In Hoogeveen there were 48. In the other municipalities the death rate is lower.
View all data from the municipalities of Drenthe below: