Anti-public health regulation group Viruswaanzin has lost a court case to force the government to scrap the coronavirus restrictions, including the 1.5 metre social distancing rule.

The group, whose name means ‘virus madness’, argued that the rules were excessive given the low death rate from Covid-19 and questioned the government’s official death toll.

Group leader Jeroen Pols told the court that the death figure included people who were infected with the virus while having other serious diseases such as cancer. ‘They want to drive up the statistics. They need a large number of deaths.’

But the court said the rules were based on professional advice by the Outbreak Management Team, made up of virologists and other public health experts, and legally sound.

‘There is a lot of popular and scientific debate over the nature, severity and approach to coronavirus. It doesn’t however follow that the approach chosen by the state is evidently wrong,’ the judge said in dismissing the application for an injunction.

Viruswaanzin is in talks with the city council in The Hague in an attempt to organise a protest against the coronavirus rules on August 1. Two previous protests on June 21 and June 28 were banned, but restrictions on public gatherings have been eased since then.