GGD Flevoland reportedly took more than a year and a half to complete a Woo procedure concerning a measles outbreak in Almere. Internal emails included a legal adviser’s proposal to prolong the process until it no longer had news value. The GGD said this was not official policy, acknowledged that it had not handled the request properly and on time, and said it was working to improve its processing of Woo requests. After an appeal to the Central Netherlands court, it provided a readable digital version of the documents, after which the application was withdrawn.

The documents identified the school as Islamic primary school Al Iman in Almere. The GGD said the outbreak had initially been limited and manageable and that publishing the school’s name had not been necessary to protect public health. Later GGD research reportedly found that 34 people had been infected, including 24 pupils at the school, which had about 450 pupils. The GGD said disclosure decisions were made case by case and that the name of a school or institution could be made public in a larger or riskier outbreak.