LIVE | Rutte: schools open before February 8 would be ‘small miracle’ | Inland

It would be “a small miracle” if the primary schools and childcare centers could open before February 8, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said during his weekly press conference on Friday. The cabinet must first await the advice of experts on this, says the prime minister.

Research is currently underway into the spread of the so-called British corona variant by children. Only when more is known about this, schools can possibly open again. The results of the study are expected before February 2.

Reopening schools is high on the cabinet’s wish list. Rutte repeated his message that when relaxation is possible again, the opening of primary schools and childcare will be the first to happen. According to him, there was previously “a small opening” that was already possible before February 8, “but I really don’t want to awaken that hope,” he says.

Earlier Friday, education minister Arie Slob also said that the schools cannot open earlier, despite good research results into the British variant in Lansingerland. There was an outbreak with the British mutant in a primary school.

The outbreak there has since died out. Large-scale testing has been carried out in the municipality. Of the 45,000 people tested, 27,000 have now received the test result: 242 people received a positive test, 12 percent of them (about 29 cases) were infected with the British variant.

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View here the live blog of Thursday 21 January.

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