Rotterdam medical students infected by corona after volleyball tournament

The beach volleyball tournament organised by the Medical Faculty Association Rotterdam (MFVR) might be one of the sources of Covid-19 cases among Rotterdam students. According to an e-mail from the board to its members, seen by EM, multiple participants turned out to be infected after the event.

On Monday, it was announced that a cluster of between ten and twenty cases of coronavirus infections had been established among students. According to the GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond, this was due to at least two ‘social gatherings’ of students. One of these was apparently the event organised by the association of medical students at Erasmus MC, although the GGD can’t say that for certain yet. “Today the board has established that several members who attended the beach volleyball tournament on Saturday (18 July, ed.) have tested positive for COVID-19,” the board writes in its e-mail to the members.

In the mail, the board advises everyone who took part in the tournament to go into quarantine, even if they have no symptoms. The board members were not available for comment on Tuesday morning.

Meeting with the mayor

On Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb will meet the student associations to talk about the recent infections. Merel van Lunen, preses of the Rotterdam Chamber of Associations (RKvV), is one of those invited to the meeting. According to Van Lunen, both cases were related to drinks parties that had not been organised by student associations (the MFVR is regarded as a faculty association, not a student association). She regrets what she feels is the ‘misleading impression’ that associations have not kept to the rules. “In fact, they have been obsessive in keeping to the rules, also because they knew that they were being scrutinised.”

However, some of the infected students were members of the student associations. Van Lunen: “Ultimately we all have the same goal: to protect those who have contracted the virus and all the other students. But we have noticed a slight laxness among Rotterdam students with respect to the rules. We now want the associations to impress on students the importance of keeping to the rules.”

‘No ban on Eurekaweek’

President Sander Doude van Troostwijk from Eurekaweek will be present at the meeting with Aboutaleb. ‘His’ Eurekaweek is at risk due to the new infections, but the mayor is notconsidering cancellation. “We will monitor the developments, but cancelling Eurekaweek is not yet part of the plan,” Aboutaleb told RTV Rijnmond on Monday.

Doude van Troostwijk is confident that they will have a ‘constructive discussion’ with the mayor. “We submitted a plan to the municipality, which is awaiting approval. We are taking all scenarios into account, so if stricter measures are introduced, we are prepared.” For now, Doude van Troostwijk is assuming that the introductory week will go ahead.