The policy must be fully focused on opening the economy again next Saturday. That is what employers’ organizations VNO-NCW and MKB Nederland say. “The lockdown is no longer feasible for entrepreneurs, not for society as a whole and all other countries in Europe are also largely open,” the organizations say.
According to the employers’ organisations, the lockdown was probably unavoidable at the beginning of December, “but we now know more about omikron and the Netherlands in Europe is deviating increasingly sharply from all other EU Member States in terms of policy.” The employers’ organizations also point out that the group of elderly vulnerable Dutch people has now received a booster shot to a large extent, which considerably reduces the risk of serious illness and hospitalization.
The current lockdown applies until Friday, so the cabinet will have to make a decision quickly about what to do next. Tomorrow the Outbreak Management Team will meet again for a new advice. Today, the most involved ministers were updated about developments around corona by RIVM director Van Dissel.
One of the lessons from this is that there are many hospitalizations in other European countries, says the new Minister of Health Ernst Kuipers. “If you look at the United Kingdom, for example, the number of people admitted to hospital is extremely high and that really leads to disruption. We must prevent that in the Netherlands.” Kuipers expects that the number of hospital admissions will also increase in the Netherlands in the coming period.
But whether the high number of infections also leads to many more people in the ICU is not discussed by Kuipers. From data from Denmark and the United Kingdom came forward that admission to the IC with omikron is needed less often. The capacity on that IC is lower in the Netherlands than in countries around us.
Quarantaineregels
Another call from employers is to adjust the quarantine rules. VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland believe that many people are sitting at home unnecessarily and say that many companies and institutions are getting into trouble as a result.
The business organizations see the solution in taking the booster shot into account. If it is up to them, an employee with such a vaccination, no complaints and a negative test, no longer needs to be quarantined if there was contact with an infected person.
According to Ernst Kuipers, the OMT also includes the quarantine rules in their advice. The minister does not want to anticipate any adjustment yet.
After Kuipers officially succeeded Hugo de Jonge yesterday, he did say that things must be different. “Corona will not go away. That means that for the coming period we have to look for a way to give this a place in the long term. That is not just something for public health. That is something that must be done with society as a whole.” to do.”
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