“In recent weeks, we have heard from the GGDs that people are not cooperating well with the source and contact investigation,” says De Jonge. “That is our dyke improvement to prevent us from having a second wave.” According to the minister, the non-committal nature should be removed. “We have to make it more compulsory.”
The measure will be implemented in phases, De Jonge writes, in consultation with the safety regions and the GGDs. The obligation will take effect in the second half of next week. Chairman Hubert Bruls of the Security Council, the umbrella organization of security regions, says he agrees with the measure. “We asked for it ourselves. We support this.”
Two weeks ago the cabinet still decided against a mandatory quarantine for high-risk travelers, but the minister will change that. For this mandatory quarantine, a legislative amendment is still required.
Task regions, penalty demand in the making
De Jonge will give all security regions instructions to regulate the mandatory quarantine for people who emerge from the source and contact investigation. With regard to the people who emerge from the contact investigations, he uses the Public Health Act, a law that already applies and therefore does not need to be discussed by the House of Representatives.
An obligation to cooperate in the source and contact investigation is also being considered, De Jonge reports. “Cooperation could be enforced by imposing an order subject to penalty,” he writes. “This would not be an alternative to the quarantine measure, but an additional tool to improve cooperation in both source and contact investigation and quarantine.”
Anyone who does not comply with an imposed enforced quarantine is punishable and can be brought to court. The sentence to which this applies has yet to be worked out by the Public Prosecution Service.
Increase in the number of infections
This week, the number of corona cases increased again. In total, more than 4,000 people were diagnosed with the corona virus, a week earlier that was less than 2,600.
At the same time, the number of hospital admissions and deaths remains stable. Those numbers have increased slightly in recent weeks. Now the number of admissions has fallen slightly, from 44 to 38. The number of deaths has increased slightly, from 6 to 9.
In March and April, the number of deaths and admissions was much higher. For example, in the week of April 7, 2,700 people were hospitalized and over 1,000 people died.
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