Curfew and only one visitor at home: stricter measures to be announced for Netherlands today

Early this afternoon, the outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte and outgoing Health Minister Hugo de Jonge will give a press conference on new coronavirus measures — and they’re expected to be tight.

As of Friday, a curfew is likely to be in place between 8:30 PM and 4:30 AM. In addition, the number of guests allowed in a home at once will be reduced to just one, reports RTL Nieuws. At a funeral, the previous 100 attendees will be reduced to 50.

In a letter to the Lower House, De Jonge explained that extra measures are “necessary in the shortest possible term,” reports NRC.

Travel bans

Banning all flights to the Netherlands from the UK, South Africa and South America is still on the table due to the spread of the COVID-19 mutation in these areas. The cabinet has also investigated restricting travel within the Netherlands, as Germany has done, but so far this is not feasible.

Curfew

Exact details on the curfew will be decided upon this morning, but it is likely that the only exception to the rule will be for hospital visits and other emergencies. As with the other measures, the curfew would provisionally be in place until February 9.

The Outbreak Management Team (OMT) predicts that once the curfew is implemented, home infections will be reduced by 10%.

Press conference

Around 1 PM today, the cabinet will announce their decision in a press conference. While many ministers who were previously against curfews have now changed their minds, there are still some who believe this is not the way to go. Regardless, the new strain of coronavirus is pushing Dutch politicians to make measures stricter.

What do you think of the expected new measures? Tell us in the comments below.

Feature Image: Viv Lynch/Flickr/CC2.0

Emily Burger
Emily Burger
Emily grew up in South Africa but has also lived in Egypt, the UK, Canada and now the Netherlands. She first came here for her Bachelors in Arts and Culture at Maastricht University and soon fell in love with the land of canals, clogs and cheese. When she's not daydreaming about sci-fi movies or countries yet to explore, you can find her writing for DutchReview.

4 COMMENTS

  1. 20:30 is an unreasonable hour for the curfew.. My grandmother’s chicken go to sleep later than that.
    I feel that this curfew is limitating our constitutional freedom right.

  2. Is it legal to introduce a curfew without declaring an emergency state or a natural disaster? Now, I think that is one big restriction of freedom…

  3. Needing a ‘declaration from one’s employer’ to be outside at night!!! So now an unemployed person has less human rights in this country. Disgusting and entirely over the top. I will be outside at 8.30pm and at 5am every damn day until this bullsh*t is revoked!

  4. People complaining about a curfew are being rather selfish, aren’t they? Seems better to work together to protect everyone. Curfew is annoying and perhaps inconvenient. Death, however, is permanent.

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