Last night there was another press conference with the Dutch prime minister and Minister of Health. Long story short: the number of infections are decreasing but the number of hospital admissions are still going up (rivm.nl). Therefore the government has decided that additional restrictions will be in force from 22:00 night, for two weeks, on top of the restrictions that are already in place. In theory the restrictions are automatically lifted after the two week period (but who knows if that will actually happen).
The most important points are:
- closure of theaters, museums, zoos, attraction parks, cinemas, and other areas normally open to the public (but retail stores and hairdressers and the like are still open)
- originally libraries were in this list, but today the government said that it is possible to check out books from the library, but not go there for activities like studying. It’s a bit of a question mark still, though. But it makes sense since everyone kept asking why the cultural institutions needed to close for two weeks but not the local Ikea or home improvement store (both of which are way too popular in this country).
- I saw this one coming and checked out another three books on Monday, just in case.
- traveling aboard between now and mid-January for holidays and family visits is strongly discouraged
- a lot of Europeans travel to other countries for winter sports, and a lot of the infections in the first wave back in March were linked to winter sport trips in Italy.
- you can only have up to two guests in your house per day (reduced from 4)
- you can only be outside with one other person (households and children exempted). This was reduced from a maximum of three other people.
- groups of three or more can be fined during this two week period.
For now, schools remain open.
More information can be found at rijksoverheid.nl: Temporary tightening of partial lockdown and Tijdelijke verzwaring van de gedeeltelijke lockdown.
Life in the Hague 