In this new step, almost anything is allowed to open, be it with conditions. For example, the sports competition for youth can start again, but there are no spectators at these competitions yet.
‘Closed, unless’ becomes ‘open, unless’ is how the cabinet describes this next step of the opening plan. “Step 3 actually means the end of the lockdown,” Rutte said during the press conference on May 28.
This is allowed again from today:
- Restaurants and cafes are allowed to receive guests inside, with a maximum of 50 people and fixed seats
- Horeca can stay open longer, until 22.00 pm
- Selling alcohol is now allowed until 10 p.m. (was 8 p.m.)
- Cinemas, museums and theaters are allowed to open again. For transfer locations (such as a museum) there is a maximum of 1 visitor per 10 square meters. In indoor areas with fixed seats, a maximum of 50 people applies. There are exceptions to this: a room with more than 1000 seats is allowed to allow a maximum of 250 people. If the occasion works with access tests, there is no maximum at all, as long as the one and a half meters is used
- Funerals are an exception to the indoor space rule: 100 people are allowed to attend a funeral
- You can now receive four people at home
- The maximum group size also goes from two to four people outside
- Youth competition can start again
- Sports canteens and dressing rooms can open again
- In sports, the distinction in age is abandoned. All ages are now allowed to work out without having to take into account the 1,5 meter rule. The latter only applies during sports
- Saunas and tanning studios can open
- Practicing art and culture, such as rehearsing for a band or orchestra, is allowed again
- Indoor spaces in amusement parks are allowed to open
- You can pick up and deliver food until 1 am
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Barbecues and baby showers
Now that generally everything is open again, we can make plans again. And we do. Dateprikker.nl, the website and app for scheduling appointments, saw almost 50 percent more appointments made at the end of May than at the beginning of May. In fact, more appointments are made than in the same period in 2019, when corona did not yet exist.
Now that more is possible, we are making plenty of appointments for barbecues, weekends away, holidays and nights out. For example, Datumprikker saw 40,000 people being invited for a barbecue appointment last week. Baby showers and bachelor parties are also being planned more often, and even Sinterklaas and Christmas appointments are already being made.
Date picker expects that 50 percent more appointments may be made this summer than in the summer of 2019.
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The Netherlands open even further
It is the first time that relaxation will take effect on a Saturday. That would first be Wednesday, June 9, but because the infection figures and the occupation in the hospitals fell faster, it was possible to bring it forward. Only a few days difference, but this gives the cultural institutions and catering industry an extra weekend of space, Rutte said during the press conference.
The next step in the opening plan, step 4, has been modified. Easing steps from step 4 and step 5 will merge, creating one big step. Major events can be organized again and discotheques and nightclubs can also open again under certain conditions with access tests. For festivals and transfer locations, such as a museum, they are then allowed to admit 75 percent of their capacity with access tests.
It looks like these relaxations will take effect on June 30, but it could be earlier if the corona figures fall.
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