From a ban on events to the cancellation of all amateur team sports: the cabinet announced a new package of measures to curb the corona virus on Tuesday evening. Why the cabinet has opted for these new measures.
“When we were here three weeks ago, we counted 3,000 infections a day. Now there are almost 7,400”, Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Health) began his speech on Tuesday evening, after Prime Minister Mark Rutte had announced the measures.
“Two weeks ago there were 690 people with corona in the hospital. Now there are 1,410,” added De Jonge. “The number of people infected must decrease.”
According to De Jonge, that goal can be broadly achieved by making fewer agreements with each other and limiting the number of travel movements. “All measures are aimed at that. That is the purpose of this partial lockdown.”
The vast majority (almost 60 percent) of those infections takes place in the home situation. Side note: the GGDs succeeded in tracing an infection in only 17 percent of the cases. Much more often, contamination cannot be traced back to a source.
In order to reduce infections in the home situation, a maximum of three guests per day may be received at home.
Young people in particular are infected
But the corona virus does not naturally circulate in houses by itself; that is eventually contracted by one of the housemates elsewhere. According to Rutte, it is an important reason to close the catering industry.
“In the group between 20 and 24 years old, many infections take place (last week 4,800 of the total of more than 41,000 infections, ed.). This happens in the catering industry or at work”, says Rutte. “In addition, we also see an increase in the number of positive tests among catering staff.”
To prevent young people from coming together at home due to the closure of the pubs, no alcohol may be sold after 8 p.m. and you may no longer walk down the street with alcoholic drinks after that time.
The restriction of the group size (maximum four people at a distance of 1.5 meters) should also ensure that people meet less. “In smaller groups, fewer people can be infected at the same time,” said Rutte.
Less travel means less contact
To ensure that people infect each other less at work, Rutte once again urged employers to really only allow staff to come to the office if there is no other option.
Limiting the number of travel movements should also lead to less contact between people. And so all amateur sports competitions have been canceled and the very urgent call was made to go out as little as possible during holidays in your own country. Traveling to an area with an orange or red travel advice is completely out of the question for the government.
From the dense catering industry to a ban on events: everything is aimed at a period of as much social abstinence as possible. The corona virus must not be allowed to spread even further within the Netherlands. “It will hurt, but this is the only way,” said Rutte. “Nor is it about one sector or one form of leisure activity. It is about buttons that we turn at the same time. It is a sum.”
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