NOS News••Amended
As expected, the cabinet has scrapped the latest corona measures. People no longer have to do a self-test in case of complaints. If they do not feel ill, they no longer have to stay at home, and can even go to work in consultation with their employer.
After the cabinet meeting, Minister Kuipers said that from now on corona will be approached in the same way as other respiratory infections. “You can now indeed call it a kind of flu.”
He emphasized that the virus will never go away, but that “almost everyone in the Netherlands has now built up such a defense” that the consequences are much less serious than before.
He did point out that people with corona are still admitted every day. There are currently about 900 corona patients in the hospital. These are almost all people who already had fragile health.
Advice OMT
The Outbreak Management Team (OMT) already advised at the end of last month to scrap the last measures. That has now been taken over by the government.
Kuipers spoke of a special moment, “to think about it”. It has been three years since the first corona infection was diagnosed in the Netherlands.
The cabinet calls on people to continue to use common sense in case of flu or cold complaints and to continue to adhere to the general hygiene measures, such as washing hands, ventilating and coughing and sneezing into the elbow.
It has been decided not to organize a new vaccination round in the spring. That was also recommended by the OMT. The GGD test lanes will close soon. In the course of the year, the OMT will check whether an extra vaccination round in the autumn is still useful.
Meanwhile, the government continues to monitor where and how often the virus is circulating through sewage checks.
