UPDATEThe Outbreak Management Team advises a hard lockdown and everything indicates that the cabinet will follow this advice. That means that almost everything in our country is closed. The cabinet will discuss this in conclave and will probably hold a press conference today. That opportunity is ‘very present’, according to an insider.
Niels Klaassen
Latest update:
09:57
In the morning, the cabinet holds consultations with the mayors in the Security Council. After that, the most concerned ministers meet to discuss the new advice of the OMT. There will probably be a press conference today by Prime Minister Rutte and care minister De Jonge at 7 p.m. or possibly a speech by Rutte from the Torentje, as was the case with the previous winter lockdowns.
The advice of the OMT is intended to keep the omikron variant small. According to sources, the team is calling for the closure of all sectors, with the exception of essential stores such as supermarkets, pharmacies and drug stores. This step should stifle the rapid advance of the much more contagious omikron variant.
To care
Yesterday morning, the Outbreak Management Team discussed the latest data on the omikron variant that plagues countries such as England and Denmark. “We are concerned, the spread is going very quickly,” said Minister De Jonge after the Council of Ministers yesterday. “We will examine whether additional measures are needed to lower and delay the wave.”
For now, the mutant doesn’t seem any more sickening. But if the omikron variant infects many more people in a short period of time than the old virus version, hospitals will fill up faster than before. And the Dutch hospitals cannot have that, with currently more than 2470 corona patients admitted (of whom 638 are on IC).
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math
The RIVM modellers worked until the night to make accurate forecasts. OMT chairman Jaap van Dissel may now be more inclined to step on the brakes early than before. In conversation with news hour the RIVM boss acknowledged on Thursday evening that the situation has been estimated ‘too often optimistically’. ,,You hope that the dime falls in the right direction, but we have seen too often that it is disappointing.”
In an interview with this news site in October, he was also too positive, the OMT chairman admitted. Van Dissel then predicted that hard lockdown rules would no longer be necessary next winter. That looks different now. ,,Of course we thought at the time: by that time we will have had delta for so long, we will finally clean it up. Omikron is something that ruins that party.”
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