LIVE | Eindhoven: stay away from the city center | Inland

Participants during the Ascension Demonstration in Den Bosch. They disagree with the corona measures.

Ⓒ Rob Engelaar

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Ascension Day attracts shoppers in many places. In Venlo and Roermond, Ascension Day is traditionally a ‘German Day’: the cities are then overrun by German bargain hunters, who mainly visit the inner cities and the Designer Outlet Center in Roermond.

A spokesperson for the municipality of Roermond said the crowds at the center were manageable. When it threatens to become too busy, the parking lot barriers close until the crowds subside. In Venlo, visitors from outside the city are spread over several parking garages. For the time being, no additional measures are required in both inner cities.

15.00 – Fieldlab: hundreds of enthusiasts welcome to Beethoven

The Residentie Orkest from The Hague will play Beethoven’s Fifth for the first time on Friday evening for what is hoped to be a reasonably full hall. Of the more than a thousand seats in the Zuiderstrand Theater in Scheveningen, 80 percent are offered for sale to non-vulnerable interested parties that have been tested negatively for corona. These are people under the age of seventy, without being very overweight or suffering from certain diseases. The event is regarded as a so-called Fieldlab event, with which it is investigated how such concerts can take place safely despite the corona virus.

The aforementioned conditions therefore come from the RIVM. “But we are not going to stand at the entrance with scales. We mainly appeal to common sense, ”said a spokesperson for the organization. Visitors must keep in touch through a special app. In addition to having themselves tested before and after the concert, they must be willing to participate in any temperature measurements on the spot and they are given a lanyard around the neck to register movements and contacts.

The concert is a ‘upscaling test’, where more people are welcome than before. For example, at the performance of cabaret artist Guido Weijers, in the 1500-seat Beatrix Theater in Utrecht, 500 seats were taken. The enthusiasm for the Fieldlab in Scheveningen was a bit disappointing in the middle of this week with 500 tickets sold. At that time, it was expected that the number of visitors would rise to 550-600.

The audience in the Zuiderstrandtheater is divided into two groups: those who sit on the ground floor and those who are allowed to sit on the balcony. They are allowed to sit where they want. The interested parties are allowed in in groups every ten minutes. As long as they have not taken their place, they must keep a mouth mask and this is explicitly monitored. But those who want to keep the cap on continuously can also be asked to take it off. Visitors may also be asked to come closer to each other than five feet away. The cloakroom is open and refreshments are also offered in the foyers. There is no intermission.

Afterwards, visitors are not allowed to approach risk groups and must still participate in surveys.

7.00 – India reports more than 360,000 new infections

India reports 362,727 new corona infections on Thursday. The number of deaths has risen by 4,120. The total number of infections has risen to 23.7 million with the new figures. The death toll in the country comes to 258,317.

The Indian death toll from the corona pandemic went past a quarter of a million on Wednesday. However, experts suspect that the actual number is much higher. Crematoriums and burial grounds are overburdened, leaving next of kin to leave bodies in the sacred Ganges River. After finding 71 bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims, authorities placed a net in the river to collect the bodies.

During the second wave of the pandemic, the virus spread mainly in large cities, but is also commonly found in smaller cities. Hospitals in India are under such pressure that the country has to import medical devices to stand a chance against the pandemic.

6.45 -No infections and corona deaths on Curaçao for a long time

No new corona infections were registered on Curaçao on Wednesday and no one died from the effects of the virus. There were also no infections the day before, when a corona patient died. With that, the fierce corona wave of recent months seems to be over. The last time the island had no infections was almost three months ago.

In the following period, the number of corona cases increased enormously to more than 4,700 registered infections in early April. As far as is known, 113 people on the island are still infected. Nearly 100 corona patients have died in the past three months. The total death toll since the start of the pandemic stands at 117.

The number of corona patients in the hospital has fallen significantly: from more than 130 in the first week of April to 27 on Wednesday. 19 of them are still in intensive care. More than a month earlier, there were still more than 40 patients in the IC and 9 Curaçao patients had been transferred to the IC in Aruba.

Because the vaccination program is going well, the corona measures started to be relaxed this month and more relaxation is expected in the short term.

As a result of the enormous increase in the number of corona patients on the island, dozens of Dutch doctors and healthcare providers had flown to Curaçao to help from the beginning of April. The vast majority of them have now returned to the Netherlands.

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