It is busy this weekend in fields, parks and in shopping streets. “That was really different two weeks ago,” said Ruud Kuin of the Dutch Boa union. He says it is difficult to enforce the corona measures in some places.
During the corona crisis, Kuin receives daily updates from various members about the crowds outside, spread across the country.
“Especially in the big and smaller cities there are a lot more people on the street,” says Kuin about this Saturday and Sunday. Things go particularly wrong in the parks, where people with three or more sit together, “on a blanket, with a beer”.
When asked whether the extraordinary investigating officers (boas) can still properly enforce the corona measures, Kuin says that the shopping streets are particularly difficult. “The past week you saw it getting busier there. As one of the members says: people seem to return to their normal lives. It is almost impossible to maintain there, because everyone is on the move.”
It is busy in the center of Rotterdam and The Hague, says Kuin. But not as busy as Delft last Saturday. There, the police requested people “urgently” to leave the city center because of the crowds.
Arnhem police warns: stay out of the city center
Reports from various mayors and police departments seem to confirm the picture that the number of people going outside is increasing. On Facebook, the Arnhem police warned people not to come to the city center in the coming days: “It was too busy today. Stay home and think about each other.”
The municipality of Utrecht sees the crowds in shopping streets and outside hardware stores increasing. “Our enforcers say that people go out mainly on the basis of their own assessment. If everyone does that, you will see it getting busier,” says a spokesperson. “We hear that people are very reasonable when they are addressed.”
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Amsterdammers enjoy the sun on the Museumplein on Sunday (Image: NU.nl)
‘Round center done and shocked’
The mayor of Hengelo Sander Schelberg said on Twitter on Saturday in shock to be: “Today I did a round of the center and was shocked. It seems that people think that everything is possible again.”
“Please think of all those nurses who are working hard! The urgent advice is and remains: stay at home as much as possible,” he adds.
The mayor of the Utrecht municipality of Vijfheerenlanden also said on Twitter on Saturday: “Dear people. I will just drop in: it was too busy today. In the city, at the hardware store, on the road.” He later added that eight people were fined after celebrating a Sunday night party.
Wouter Weide, of the Association of Do-It-Yourself Retail Chains, says that he has no visitor numbers to hardware stores, but that this period is traditionally busier because of the holidays. He emphasizes that there may be a bit longer lines and a bit fuller in the parking spaces, but that the shops remain quiet due to the access policy used.
NU.nl is still waiting for a response from various municipalities and the Safety Council, the umbrella organization of safety regions in the Netherlands.
Follow the latest developments around the virus in our live blog.
The coronavirus in short
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