Let me tell you, it is weird to walk into a supermarket and see only 33% of the workers and customers still wearing a face mask. Today the Netherlands dropped most of the corona restrictions: Full list of coronavirus restrictions as of June 26 from nltimes.nl.

It is weird to see others’ faces inside. I still have a face mask on, both for myself and others who aren’t vaccinated yet. It’s possible some appointments could be moved up but some of the younger folk won’t get their first shot until the first week of July and they second shot in mid-August. Right now the Netherlands has a 5 week gap between the first and second shots for Pfizer and Moderna, although maybe if we are lucky and there is extra supply they will bring the second shot forward to 4 weeks? We’ll see.

At this point you only need to wear a face mask on public transportation or in areas where you can’t keep 1.5 meters (5 distance) from others. As the prime minister Mark Rutte says, everything that is possible at 1.5 meters is allowed again. For instance you can go back to work 50% of the time if social distancing can be maintained. The sale of alcohol and marijuana is again allowed after 22:00 and there is no restriction on opening hours for restaurants or cafés.

One interesting thing is that night clubs are allowed to be open again, having been closed since March 2020 (!). Since social distancing is all but impossible, you either need to have proof that you are fully vaccinated or you need to take a corona test; the negative test can be no older than 40 hours old. Of course, to enter the night club you need to have your negative test result. One problem with that? Covid access testing waiting times caused by cyberattack from nltimes.nl. Yep, the testen voor toegang (tests for entry) platform was hacked yesterday causing some test results to arrive hours too late or not arrived at all. Most problems seem to be fixed today, at least.

Some other news:

Silent disco ended over noise complaints from nltimes.nl. What are silent discos, you ask? Everyone wears headphones while they listen to the music, making it seem like everyone is dancing to nothing. “Many people were shouting to one another in the house, according to the newspaper. Attendees were wearing headphones, and were unable to hear each other without raising their voices.” Opps?

Let out coronavirus frustration at Vijfhuizen “rage room” from nltimes.nl. Here is a snippet: “At the demolition site in Vijfhuizen, a special route has been set up allowing visitors to vent their rage for as little as 25 euros. It starts with smashing cups and plates on six stacked cars defaced with text such as ‘curfew’ or ‘work from home’. In the next part, visitors frustrated with working from home are able to unleash their anger by breaking a printer or a monitor.”

Hmmm…

For the American readers among us, Janssen is the J&J vaccination. The Netherlands has one of three factories in the world producing the vaccine. The name of the Dutch company producing it is Janssen, hence why it has a different name here in Europe. The distribution of the Janssen vaccine in the Netherlands (and Europe) isn’t that high, though. Here in the Netherlands we have received about 250,000 Janssen shots compared to 10 million Pfizer shots.

A month or two ago the Dutch government decided that due to the extremely rare risk of blood clots the vaccine would not be given to anyone under the age of 60. However, more recently the government decided to allow everyone 18 and older the choice to book a Janssen vaccine appointment, from today. There are 200,000 vaccines available. There are some advantages, especially for those who want to travel over the summer. You only need one shot and you can generally get a Janssen appointment much faster than two appointments for Pfizer or Moderna. Some lucky souls were able to book a Janssen appointment from this Friday. Otherwise that age group was looking at getting their second vaccine appointment in mid-August.

The government also makes it easy to switch your appointments. Everyone was encouraged to book mRNA vaccine (Pfizer/Moderna) appointments even if there was a chance you might want Janssen instead. Provided you haven’t received your first shot yet you are allowed to call and switch your appointment to Janssen, no questions asked. It has always been easy to switch your appointments here in the Netherlands, though it gets a bit more complicated if you want two different locations or you are re-booking your second appointment when you got Moderna during your first appointment since Moderna is much rarer here.

The thing is, the government announced a few weeks ago that anyone over the age of 18 would be able to book an Janssen appointment this week but that there would only be 200,000 doses available. A few days ago they announced that you could call from today, however the phone number to call wasn’t released until this morning. The government had 3,500 workers on standby to take calls.

…you can imagine the chaos, yes?