The Netherlands will most likely remain a red spot on the map of corona cases in Europe for the time being. The countries around us are predominantly green and orange, which means that fewer people test positive there. As a result, those countries may stick to the travel restrictions they have introduced for Dutch holidaymakers.

The corona map is made every Thursday by ECDC, the European equivalent of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The organization looks at the number of positive tests in the past two weeks and the percentage of positive tests. Countries use that map to tailor their rules to. For example, Germany decided last week to tighten up the rules for Dutch people. That should keep the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus at bay as much as possible.

In last week's map, the provinces of North Holland, South Holland, Utrecht, North Brabant, Gelderland and Overijssel went from red to dark red. Groningen was already at that highest level and remained there. Zeeland, Limburg, Drenthe, Friesland and Flevoland remained in the red. That is the second highest level.

The number of corona cases in the Netherlands started to decrease a week and a half ago. Because the ECDC looks at the figures for the last two weeks, the peak of this wave is just counting towards Thursday's chart. Those high numbers disappear from next week's chart. Then the colors for the Netherlands could change, with the result that other countries might decide to relax the rules for Dutch holidaymakers.

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Besides the Netherlands, holiday destinations such as Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg are also completely red. Greece is largely orange, but Crete is dark red. France, Belgium and Denmark are predominantly orange. Countries such as Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Norway and Iceland are completely green. This means that they have the corona outbreak under control for the time being.

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