After two years of pandemic and restrictive measures, the social pain is becoming increasingly heavy for the new cabinet. For example, Health Minister Ernst Kuipers (D66) explained at the corona press conference on Tuesday why the cabinet will be easing considerably from Wednesday, despite the ever-rising infection figures. Nearly all sectors of society are once again allowed to be open until 10 p.m., “and for good reason,” said Kuipers. “Living any longer with many restrictive measures damages our health and our society.”
The will to do things differently after two years of fighting the crisis has won out within the new cabinet from the fear that things could go wrong again. Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) said that the cabinet, with relaxations that go beyond what the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) advised, is “consciously pushing the limits of what is possible”. With the risk that the infection figures will rise so quickly in the coming weeks that the cabinet may have to reverse easing again. The cabinet takes that risk very consciously, Rutte said, because of all the recent cries for help from, among others, catering and culture entrepreneurs “behind such major problems and tensions”.
Although Rutte calls the step “very exciting”, the Dutch package of measures with the relaxation is closer to that of other European countries, which did not need a lockdown in recent weeks to cope with the rapidly expanding Omikron wave. Omikron is becoming more optimistic across Europe, based on experts’ expectations that this milder variant will really herald a fundamentally different phase of the pandemic that will be less disruptive to society. On Tuesday, Minister Kuipers was still hesitant to endorse that expectation. “It is too early to predict that, but if each new variant is less sickening, you will go to such an endgame.”
The coming weeks will be a unique epidemiological experiment. The Netherlands will open again while the number of infections has never been so high. Last week, RIVM registered more than 366,000 positive tests. More than 1 in 50 Dutch people became infected with this. “Further easing with these figures was previously irresponsible,” said Kuipers, but now that Omikron is leading to much fewer hospital admissions, the cabinet dares to take it. Still, the OMT expects a major wave in hospitals because the number of infections can rise to more than 100,000 per day in the coming weeks. The OMT thinks that the relaxations “consider a significant burden” on the healthcare chain, according to the latest advice.
The number of hospital admissions rose again last week, for the first time in second months, by 15 percent. This happened from a relatively low level and the increase is not yet visible on the ICs, rather the major bottleneck. Kuipers said there is “broad uncertainty” in the OMT forecasts. He hopes that the shorter hospital stays for Omikron patients will ensure that hospital beds are released more quickly and that more patients can be accommodated more easily if necessary.
Rutte once again placed a great deal of responsibility on citizens by saying that whether society can remain open completely depends on properly following the rules. The government is now making this difficult for citizens when it comes to testing: the test capacity at the GGD reached the limit on Monday with 150,000 tests per day. People who want to make an appointment can come later than usual and have to wait longer for their results. That is exactly what you should not have if you want people to continue to follow the basic rules ‘stay at home with complaints’ and ‘get tested’. Kuipers promised that the test capacity will be further increased by the end of this week.
The cabinet will look in three weeks to see whether the measures can be further relaxed. The hope has arisen in Limburg and Brabant that by then carnival celebrations will still be possible, the places where the virus spread rapidly through the country two years ago. Rutte tempered expectations about overly exuberant festivities. “It will always have to be within the rules, we are not yet rid of the virus.”
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