Dutch terraces and shops will not yet reopen on April 21. The cabinet only wants to relax the following week, if the figures allow it.
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“We need to be sure that we have passed the peak before we can take a new step,” said Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge yesterday. The cabinet discussed possible relaxation. De Jonge immediately tempered the great expectations about the opening of the catering industry and the abolition of the curfew.
Many Dutch mayors of large cities reacted reports to that news. They would have preferred the terraces to open, so that citizens could meet outside in a controlled manner. The need is particularly urgent in densely populated areas such as Amsterdam or Utrecht. The crowds in the parks are increasing. ‘It is no longer possible to explain that people are allowed to sit on the grass at Hotel New York with a bottle of rosé, but that the catering industry is not allowed to open the terraces,’ said Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb at the beginning of this month..
The catering industry is also clearly disappointed. ‘This is another hard blow to catering entrepreneurs’, says Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN) Newspaper of the North.
‘Irresponsible’
But outgoing Minister of Justice Ferd Grapperhaus said today that easing is really ‘not justified yet’. With 6,757 infections, the Netherlands is doing better than yesterday, but the average number of positive corona tests is increasing. The pressure on hospitals is too high, the progress of the infections is too erratic. That was the most important argument for the government to postpone the relaxation. By the way, the date for opening terraces was not officially announced, but ended up in the public opinion due to a leak. ‘I can imagine the confusion, but I never released that date myself’, De Jonge communicated.
The hospital staff are satisfied with the delay. ‘This is unpleasant for many people who had counted on or hoped for relaxation,’ says Ad Melkert, chairman of the board of the Dutch Hospitals Association. US. “But it is necessary, because it is all hands on deck in the hospitals.”
Tomorrow, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Minister De Jonge will hold a press conference in which they present a step-by-step plan with the sequence of the intended relaxation. In addition to curfews, terraces and shops, these are the opening of colleges and universities, after-school care and the further opening of education.
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