LIVE | Rutte now sees no reason for stricter corona measures Inland

• Free self-tests for Dutch households: ‘This must prevent corona wave after the summer holidays’
• After death, seven vaccinated residents of residential care center: what do we know about the Colombian variant?
• 2347 new corona infections, figures are incomplete
• France is tightening corona rules despite protests you have to take this into account as a tourist

12.18 – Rutte now sees no reason for sharper corona measures

Additional corona measures are not necessary now. That said outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The corona figures showed a downward trend in the past week, so other policy is not necessary, according to him.

It was not expected in advance that a change in corona policy would be announced on Monday. This is because another big press conference is scheduled for Friday. In it, it will be announced what the policy will look like in the coming period. New advice from the Outbreak Management Team was also requested for this. Rutte did not want to anticipate that.

Monday morning it was announced that all Dutch households will receive a letter with which they can receive two free self-tests. The idea is that people can reduce the chance that they will infect others after their holiday if they have the virus undetected.

Due to the time when those letters are sent and the way in which the free tests are distributed, not everyone who comes back from vacation will be able to use them immediately. According to Rutte, the letter is mainly intended as an awareness campaign. “It is not the intention to smear the whole of the Netherlands with self-tests.”

07.56 – China punishes local drivers for Delta variant outbreak

The Chinese authorities have punished more than 30 officials who are held responsible for the spread of the Delta variant of the corona virus. According to state media, this includes mayors, administrators of health services and directors of hospitals and airports.

China managed to reduce the domestic spread of the virus to almost zero last year. The country has not reported any deaths from corona for months, but is now struggling with a new outbreak. It has spread to dozens of cities and is linked to cleaners at an airport in Nanjing.

The Chinese authorities do not rely solely on vaccinations to prevent the spread of the virus. They are responding to outbreaks by imposing strict local lockdowns and mass testing of people.

That happened last week in the metropolis of Wuhan, where the corona virus first appeared in 2019. There, the authorities announced on Sunday that they had tested almost all 11 million inhabitants in a few days.

03.31 – Cabinet is considering current corona measures

A number of ministers will talk again on Monday about the corona crisis and the measures that apply to prevent the spread of the virus. No major announcements or changes are expected yet. A press conference is scheduled for Friday in which a lot will be announced. An interim update will be given on Monday. The most concerned ministers spoke to each other about the situation almost every Monday this summer.

Before Friday’s press conference, the cabinet will review all corona measures. For example, it should become clear what will happen to the measures in secondary education after the summer. But the restrictions that still apply in the catering industry, for events and nightclubs and shops are also a topic of discussion. In addition, a decision must be made in the coming period whether the 1.5 meters can be abandoned in higher education. If students have to keep their distance from each other, full physical education is not possible.

The cabinet will also talk this week about basic measures, such as the 1.5 meter distance in general.

03.26 – Corona pass now also mandatory in French cafes and restaurants

In France, it is now also mandatory to show that you have been vaccinated, tested negative or have recovered from the corona virus when visiting cafes and restaurants and on long train or bus journeys. Healthcare workers are now also obliged to be vaccinated. The controversial ‘corona pass obligation’ and vaccination obligation that came into effect on Monday are an extension of the corona measures that were already in force. For example, the pass was already mandatory in museums, cinemas and venues for major events.

There has been a lot of political resistance and massive protests, especially against compulsory vaccination. However, the constitutional court gave the green light on Friday, because the measures would not violate the constitution, but are a reasonable result of a necessary trade-off between public health and fundamental rights. However, the court torpedoed the possibility that health care workers who refuse to be vaccinated and do not want to show a negative test can be fired. They are suspended. The measures apply until at least 15 November.

03.17 – Tunisia puts half a million shots during ‘open day’

Tunisia has injected more than half a million shots in one day. According to the health minister, 551,000 people were vaccinated against corona on Sunday, after all people over 40 were called on by President Kais Saied to get a shot at one of the more than 300 vaccination centers on this “open day”.

Many people in the country are dissatisfied with the handling of the corona crisis and the slowness of the vaccination campaign. After five months, 1.3 million Tunisians have been fully vaccinated. The IC departments of hospitals in Tunisia are full of corona patients and doctors complain about the workload and the shortage of oxygen for patients.

The country has received 6 million vaccines from other countries and will receive another 6 million, according to the president. Saied hopes that by mid-October at least half of the nearly 12 million inhabitants will have had a first shot. More than 610,000 infections have been identified in Tunisia since the start of the outbreak. At least 20,000 people have died from the effects of the virus.

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