News

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.

As noted yesterday, new measures have been introduced in the ongoing fight against the coronavirus in The Netherlands. Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte called it an gedeeltelijke lockdown, or partial lockdown. The goal is to “limit social contacts and movement of people” to stem the tide of reported cases (today there were almost 7,400 new cases, double what it was a few weeks ago!).

The measures will last four weeks and in two weeks (from now) they will be analyzed to see if stricter measures are needed. The measures announced this evening will go into effect from 22:00 tomorrow night.

Some of the measures include:

• Once Dutch law is updated in the near future, face masks will be required in all indoor spaces. The government is currently working on the law that can legally enforce this, so it won’t go into effect officially yet. For now it is is an urgent recommendation, but not a requirement, to wear one.
• Hotel, restaurants and cafés are required to close. Takeout is still allowed, however.
• The sale of alcohol is forbidden after 20:00, including in supermarkets. It is now illegal to drink or have alcohol in your possession outside after 20:00 (fun fact: in normal times, it’s perfectly legal to drink alcohol outside and walk around with it).
• Koopavonden (or shopping nights) are no longer allowed. Generally in The Netherlands shops are open late one day per week (usually until 21:00). The rest of the time they close at 18:00 or 19:00. For The Hague that is Thursday evenings.
• At the latest all stores should be closed by 20:00 every night, with the exception of supermarkets.
• Amateur sport is not allowed. Youth up until 18 can train together and have games against their own team, but not with other teams. Individual sporting for adults is allowed, up to four sporters. Showers, changing areas and eating areas are closed. But (good for at least some of my colleagues) sports schools are still open for exercise.
• You can only meet up with three other people that are not in your household per day. As an example, Rutte cited “block birthday parties” as something that is now forbidden – you can no longer invite three guests between 10:00-11:00, another three guests between 11:00-12:00 and so on.

The measures taken a few weeks ago do not seem to work – today we had 6,854 reported cases. Of course, some of the cases are not recent. But most are, and the hospital numbers (ICU and non-ICU) are rising.

Tomorrow evening there will be another press conference with the prime minister and the health minister. There will definitely more measures added to the pile, but how strict they are remains to be seen. Some potential measures have already leaked, including possibly stopping amateur sports for adults and limiting group sizes even further, but until they are confirmed tomorrow evening it is anyone’s guess. So for now, we wait.

(For those of us who read Dutch, you can check out this opinion piece which pretends to be a possible speech Rutte might give tomorrow. It is most certainly not real, but for those of us who wonder when the heck the Dutch government will pass strict measures, it is an interesting “dark humor” read. See also this nrc.nl link. Again – it is not real, folks.)

If you do decide to stay inside until 2021, check out this fun game to play at home:

In other news:

• Amsterdam to hold fireworks show on Museumplein at New Year (dutchnews.nl). I am not sure public would be invited, but it will also be shown on TV.
• 300 packets of washed up cocaine send ‘fortune hunters’ to Dutch beach (nltimes.nl). And of course the police arrested a handful. Including one person who drove a few hundred kilometers for “fresh air” (their words). When police searched the person’s vehicle they found a different cocaine stash.
• Joining the circle: Utrecht removes road to be ringed by water once more (dutchnews.nl). This one is actually from early September but I forgot to post it then. It’s kind of impressive – first it was a canal, then a road, and now after a few decades they turn it back into a canal again.