The days are similar, but Metz can live with it just fine. “I can still do my job and spend a lot of time with my family. Every now and then I go for a run around our apartment. I ran 10 kilometers last week, always the same 600 meter lap. That shows how small it is.” , he says with a laugh.
Lots of support
According to Metz, there is a lot of support among the population for the strict approach. “Of course everyone would like to go back to the streets, but people still believe that this is the best way to stop the outbreak. Before this, China was not affected by the pandemic for a long time, so people still believe in tackling fast and hard.” intervene to regain their freedom.”
He also notices that people already took measures before a lockdown was announced. “Earlier in the autumn, a few infections had already been reported. Then you saw that people stayed indoors more and wore a mouth cap more often.”
And according to Metz, in fact, only a very small group is affected by the lockdown. “It’s about 13 million people out of a population of 1.4 billion. The rest can just do its thing. Most people here think that’s okay and it seems to work.”
End not in sight
It is unknown how long the lockdown will last. “The authorities are not announcing an end date here, so we have to wait and see.” Metz takes into account that it may still take a while, especially with the Winter Olympics on the horizon.
“It may be that the authorities do not want to take a risk and wait to lift the lockdown until after the Olympics. For the Dutch, that will be difficult to understand, but they do understand here. If we reduce the chance that the Olympic Games will If we don’t play, we’ll do that.”
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