The provincies of Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Utrecht, Noord-Brabant, Gelderland and Overijssel have turned dark red on the latest coronavirus risk map published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Groningen was switched to dark red in last week’s update, when the rest of the country moved from amber and green to red following the surge in coronavirus infections.

That decision led Germany and France to toughen up their entry rules for people from the Netherlands, but not to any countries refusing to accept Dutch holidaymakers.

However, the red rating does allow EU countries to bring in their own measures to curtail travel, such as introducing extra testing or quarantine requirements.

The ECDC revises its risk ratings every Thursday.

Dutch public health institute RIVM said earlier this week that the number of new infections in the Netherlands appear to be stabilizing, although hospital admissions are going up.