News October 12, 2021
Last update 15:49
The GGD opened a temporary test street in Staphorst on Tuesday morning because the number of positive infections is skyrocketing. Previously, residents of the Bible Belt village had to move to municipalities such as Zwolle or Hoogeveen. After Urk, Staphorst has the lowest vaccination rate in the Netherlands, but Mayor Jan ten Kate does not want to ask anyone to please get a shot.
While nationwide nearly 83 percent of people over the age of 18 have now been fully vaccinated, the counter in Staphorst is only 56 percent. One of the reasons that the number of infections in the municipality continues to rise excessively. RTV North reports that rejecting the vaccines — Covid and others, including polio — has largely to do with the population’s beliefs. Earlier this year there was a fuss when the Dorpskerk in Staphorst announced during the lockdown just mass church services hold. Also in Staphorst the wildest conspiracy theories are circulating, such as that the vaccines are “a way for shadowy powers to gain worldwide control”.
The average number of positively tested people per 100,000 inhabitants in Staphorst is 168. In comparison: for the whole of the Netherlands there are currently only 13. Incidentally, Staphorst has only 17,145 inhabitants, of which 29 currently have a positive test result.
With the temporary test location, Mayor Ten Kate hopes that the step will be smaller for Staphorsters to be tested in case of complaints, and thus reduce the infections. In January A temporary test location was also opened this year because Staphorst was also an outlier in the number of positive infections. Ten Kate does not want to go so far as to also make a vaccination appeal: ‘That is a decision that people have to make for themselves. I do hope that people who don’t get vaccinated will take a closer look at that.’
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