Cabinet decides on new measures: catering closed earlier | Inland

With the measure, the cabinet wants to flatten the peak of infections and hospital admissions. It is probably a limitation of several weeks. In the meantime, measures are being prepared for the longer term, such as the obligation of the corona pass for non-essential shops, the workplace and higher education. The restriction of the corona pass for some sectors for those who have been vaccinated and cured is also being set up. The Outbreak Management Team (OMT) expects this so-called 2G policy to have a lot of effect, since it is mainly unvaccinated corona patients who burden the hospitals.

Furthermore, the advice to work from home will probably be tightened up and the corona ticket will also apply to zoos and amusement parks. It is a general decision. The cabinet will take a final decision on Friday afternoon, which Prime Minister Rutte and corona minister De Jonge will explain in a press conference in the evening.

Heated meeting

In a lengthy and, according to those involved, sometimes heated meeting in the Catshuis, the most involved ministers had difficulty making choices on Thursday. The task of the OMT seemed simple: the number of infections must be reduced to prevent care from being overrun even further by corona patients. If you want to precipitate the contamination peak, you have to reduce the number of contacts and travel movements.

It is clear that the current measures are not having enough effect. The tightening announced last week, such as extending the corona admission ticket to the workplace, higher education and non-essential shops cannot yet be implemented because the amendment to the law will still take time. The introduction of 2G (vaccinated or cured), whereby the test option for the corona pass expires, is also still in preparation.

Closing time to 19:00

“We can’t wait for this,” says a person involved in government policy. “Something has to be done now.” Initially, ‘all measures that have been tried out over the past year and a half’ were on the table. At the moment, the cabinet is mainly looking at the catering industry, which will have to deal with earlier closing times, probably at seven o’clock in the evening. The permanent seat will probably become a requirement again, with which spontaneous walking around would be passé and with that also dancing.

What will certainly happen is the extension of the corona pass to zoos and amusement parks. The OMT worked out several scenarios on Wednesday evening, including complete closure of sectors such as the catering industry, the event sector and non-essential shops for several weeks. The schools will remain open anyway.

‘Bearing surface thin’

During the four-hour meeting in the morning, Prime Minister Rutte and ministers Grapperhaus (Justice), De Jonge (Public Health), Blok (Economic Affairs), Hoekstra (Finance) and Ollongren (Internal Affairs) were unable to resolve the matter for a long time. According to a source at the cabinet, it was sometimes ‘tough’. “The measures are also very drastic and the support is thin.”

The most concerned ministers continued their consultations in the evening. It led to a decision in broad terms about tightened measures, of which the earlier closing time of the catering industry is the most important.

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