The number of daily COVID-19 infections in the Netherlands reached a new high on Thursday, as a party on the parliament's doorstep triggered public outrage, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
From Wednesday to Thursday a total of 7,833 new novel coronavirus infections were reported by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), 537 more than the 7,296 cases reported in the previous 24 hours.
Twenty-nine COVID-19 patients died from Wednesday to Thursday, compared with 32 deaths in the previous 24 hour period. Over the past seven days, the RIVM registered an average of 23 deaths per day, compared with an average of 16 deaths per day one week earlier.
Images of a video of people having a party near the building of the Dutch parliament in The Hague caused a stir. One of the "partial lockdown" measures announced by the government on Tuesday to tackle the spread of the virus in the country was the closure of all cafes and restaurants for weeks by 10 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
BBC images of people hopping, singing and dancing just before the closing time in a party tent of Cafe Luden in the center of The Hague on Wednesday sparked outrage on social media and beyond.
"I would be ashamed, it is too crazy for words," Jan van Zanen, mayor of The Hague, told the NOS Radio 1 Journaal.
"This really is not possible," Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld tweeted, urging "Stick to the rules, do it for someone else!"
Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, had no comment on the incident, but had another message. He will be quarantined for 72 hours, as one of his security guards has tested positive for the coronavirus.
As the world is struggling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, countries including France, China, Russia, Britain and the U.S. are racing to find a vaccine.
According to the website of the World Health Organization, as of Oct. 2, there were 193 COVID-19 candidate vaccines being developed worldwide, and 42 of them were in clinical trials.