Several sectors want the government to provide more clarity about the new corona strategy. Minister Kuipers (Public Health) presented his plan yesterday, which mainly states that the sectors must make plans for a new prevent corona infection wave.
Many sectors now know what measures they can take and already have plans ready for the next corona wave. But it is unclear for the cultural sector, the catering industry and the retail sector what measures they should take and when. Nor do they know exactly when they are entitled to financial compensation.
The sectors have been asked to submit plans for various scenarios proposed by the Scientific Council for Government Policy and the KNAW science organisation. lined up† That goes from scenario 1 (back to normal, corona is over) to worst-case scenario 5 (corona becomes more deadly). In a new revival of the virus, the plans of the sector are the basis.
Which scenario when?
“An important question for us is: what now defines which scenario we are in?”, says Jolanda Jansen. She is director of Ahoy Rotterdam and chair of the Alliance of Event Builders. “Is that the hospital admissions, or other criteria? A lot is unclear.”
This question also exists in the catering industry, says chairman Robèr Willemsen of Koninklijke Horeca Nederland, who says he has been talking about this topic since January. “First we focused on vulnerable elderly people, then on IC capacity, hospital admissions and infections. What do we have to take into account in our plans now?”
Jeroen Bartelse, director of TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht and leader of the Taskforce Cultural and Creative Sector, wants to move towards an alarm system, such as the KNMI also uses for the weather, in which it becomes clear in which phase the virus is. This requires experts from RIVM. “We also want to know the effect of certain measures. And we also want more customization. Because the measures you take in a museum or cinema are very different from those in a pop hall or in night culture.”
Triage and running schedules
The various parties also want to know which measures are useful and which are not. According to Jansen (Ahoy), all kinds of measures can be devised. “Triage in advance, seats, running schedules. But the bottom line is: which measure has had which impact and when is what is needed?”
The sectors want to discuss this with the experts. Bartelse: “We have made a global classification of what we should do and when. And we need the government to say which measures are effective, and the government has to say what is necessary when.”
More measures needed at the same time
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport states that it understands the questions from the sectors well. “Effective control of a virus is only possible by taking various measures that complement each other,” a spokesperson said. “The effectiveness of measures can therefore only be viewed at the level of entire packages of measures. It is not possible to calculate individual measures because measures are interrelated and thus influence each other’s effect.”
The spokesperson says there should be solid plans for all sectors “as soon as possible”. “We have already gained a lot of experience in recent years, so we don’t start from scratch. In addition, we continuously monitor the virus to be able to act as quickly as possible if necessary. If necessary, we are ready with upscaling capacity to be able to vaccinate and We are doing this with GGDs. Everything is ready now.”
The ministry cannot completely rule out the need for more stringent measures. “The virus is unpredictable,” the spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, if we end up in a black scenario, it may be necessary to take more severe measures. It is therefore important to be as well prepared as possible.”
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