The Netherlands is officially back in a lockdown, as of this morning at 05:00. In the end it went pretty fast – I started hearing rumors on Friday evening, which intensified when I went to bed, and then there was an emergency government meeting Saturday afternoon and a press conference Saturday evening. Of course, everyone could see it coming after Friday night so the stores were packed on Saturday. Consumers rush to do last minute shopping; Rotterdam municipality asks people to avoid center from nltimes.nl.
Hard lockdown in this case means only essential stores (like the supermarkets, pet stores and pharmacies) and services (gas stations, libraries, notaries, lawyers’ offices) are open. See also rijksoverheid.nl in English for a full list of the lockdown measures. In this case services includes driving lessons and swimming lessons, two things that have a long, long waiting list due to corona. And considering The Netherlands is full of water, swimming lessons for children are quite important.
The good news is that The Netherlands have learned from previous lockdowns, so it isn’t quite like the first one. It is possible to order something online and pick it up by the door of a physical store (called “click & collect” here). Non-essential stores are also allowed to be open as package pickup points, although while they usually receive a small stipend for staying open from the delivery companies it generally isn’t worth it. Cafés and restaurants are also open for takeaway and delivery.
Group sizes are also further limited, inside and outside. Except for the holidays (24, 25, 26 and 31 December; 1 January) group size is limited to 2 persons. During the holidays it is limited to 4 persons. You are also not supposed to visit more than one household per day. Although that is a bit iffy since the police can only check things inside your home if they have a different, valid reason to be inside your home. So if you don’t make a lot of noise…
The interesting thing is that infections are also decreasing at the moment. Although they are very, very high still (higher than any wave before this one). But the lockdown is for the arrival of the next variant, omikron. While hospital admissions are decreasing, they are still also too high to deal with the upcoming variant. At the moment about 25% of the new infections reported in Amsterdam are omikron, and that percentage was already from a few days ago.
Here is a cartoon for you that sums up 2021 (although it is not 100% negative like it sounds):
How are we supposed to just keep going? What a long grim year, again – First Dog on the Moon, The Guardian
Life in the Hague 