Dutch students work hard to keep virus out of shared houses

LEIDEN, Netherlands (AP) — The pandemic is hitting students hard in Leiden, the Netherlands’ oldest university city. With the virus casting a long shadow over education here and around the world, most lectures are online and the vibrant social life has been reined in to slow the spread of the pandemic. Instead, socializing happens predominantly within the four walls of the house that 19-year-old Iris Raats shares with 13 other students near the city’s central railway station. With that many housemates, it takes work and planning to stay safe. Raats, a first-year law student says, “it’s not like real student life.” Preventing coronavirus infections is a concern for colleges around the world, and places like Britain and the United States have seen major virus outbreaks on campus.