Falling corona figures, relaxation and fewer and fewer countries on red. Nothing seemed to stand in the way of a carefree summer vacation abroad. But the infection figures in the Netherlands have been rising exponentially in recent days. Are those holidays we’ve all been so looking forward to now in danger?
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“We were just on our way to going green, now we are in the opposite situation again. That doesn’t make us happy,” says Frank Oostdam, chairman of the ANVR (the trade association for travel agencies) on Radio Rijnmond. “But code red in itself is not a reason to panic very much. If you have already booked, there is no reason not to go on holiday.”
Carefree?
“If it goes to dark red, you have a completely different situation, then you end up in scenarios of quarantine obligations,” Oostdam continues. “That’s disastrous for holidays.” But that dark red situation is still a long way off, according to Oostdam. At the moment, an average of between 31 and 32 per 100 thousand inhabitants of the Netherlands are tested positive. “For dark red we need 500 per 100 thousand inhabitants. That is still a long way to go, so feel free to go on holiday, I would say.”
Even now, Oostdam still calls a holiday “fine”. “You just have to look carefully behind the color. France, for example, is a yellow country, take a look via wise on a journey what additional arrangements are in place. If you study the current information carefully, you can go on holiday carefree.”
Possible new measures
If new measures are needed due to the rapidly increasing number of infections in the Netherlands, the cabinet will announce them on Friday, says outgoing minister Hugo de Jonge. Insiders tell the NOS that this may involve measures for clubs and discotheques, multi-day festivals and the admission of tourists into the Netherlands. Testing for access could also be temporarily abolished.
De Jonge: “We are seeing a very rapid increase that does not yet translate into hospital admissions, but it is happening quickly.” Whether measures are needed depends on urgent advice from the OMT, the Outbreak Management Team.
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