So, news broke this afternoon that there would be another press conference on Friday. One expectation is that additional corona measures will be passed for the bigger Dutch cities, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. However, news hasn’t leaked yet on what the measures will be, because the government and the regions are still finalizing them.
This news comes on a day when the Netherlands registered more than 1,500 infections in the last 24 hours, which is easily a new record. RIVM released the weekly Covid-19 update yesterday, noting the rising percentage of positive tests (2.8% two weeks ago versus 3.9% last week) among other things. The number of people getting tested was almost 200,000, and most people now need to wait more than 72 hours to get tested. And we’re not even in the flu season yet. Yikes!
Swell of new coronavirus cases as 1,546 test positive, Over 1,000 in Randstad from nltimes.nl (Randstad being the four big cities, including Utrecht in the middle of the country).
Rumors of new Covid restrictions as Dutch PM schedules Friday press conference, also from nltimes.nl.
A portion of the issue comes from student organizations, as new clusters of dozens of students are reported on a daily basis. But that’s not the full picture either – it’s clear to see that some people no longer care about keeping their distance from others and the city centre gets more packed by the day. It will be interesting to see what the next few days bring.
(With all of that doom and gloom, I will say it’s going well for Marco and I. We’re working hard but we’re looking forward to a few days off to celebrate our 7th anniversary this weekend.)
Life in the Hague 