GGD: Volleyball tournament probably not the source of infections

The medical students who contracted COVID-19 last week were probably not infected during the beach volleyball tournament organised by the medical faculty association MFVR, according to GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond.

In recent weeks, the GGD has tested 22 Rotterdam students with positive results, but they did not all attend the tournament. Furthermore, the contact tracing for these students is still ongoing. According to Marte van der Bijl from the organising medical faculty association MFVR, around ten participants in the tournament on 18 July were infected. As far as she knows, ‘no one is seriously ill’.

Indoors more likely

Because many of the ten infected students had met each other indoors too, the GGD no longer assumes that the tournament was the cause. “Because on the one hand, based on the contact tracing, most infections took place in the group that had met each other indoors too. That might have been at a party, drinks or a meal. On the other hand, because we know that people are more likely to be infected indoors than outdoors. So the sports tournament is not a probable source,” says a spokesperson.

Drinks

According to newspaper De Volkskrant, a drinks party organised on the evening before the tournament was also attended by tournament participants. Van der Bijl leaves the enquiry into the source to the GGD but says that this drinks party was not organised by the MFVR.

Van der Bijl emphasises that all the coronavirus rules were complied with during the tournament. “We first played volleyball and then had pizza on the beach, keeping to social distancing. If anyone forgot, they were reminded.”

Quarantine

On Tuesday, EM was shown an e-mail from the MFVR to its members saying that several students had tested positive after the beach volleyball tournament. When a member reported a positive test after the tournament, the MFVR called in the GGD. They advised sending all the members an e-mail telling them to quarantine if they had been to the tournament.

Van der Bijl does not support the impression that students have become ‘laxer’, as president Merel van Lunen from the Rotterdam Chamber of Associations told EM. “What I hear around me is that everyone is taking the situation seriously and keeping to the measures.”