The Outbreak Management Team says there is not yet sufficient scientific evidence to prove that face masks are effective in curbing the spread of the virus. For that reason, face masks won’t be enforced nationwide.
However, some mayors want to be able to decide their own rules on this. For example, in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where there are high infection rates, mayors want to decide to introduce local rules or face mask experiments. This is the result of a meeting of the security regions yesterday.
Varying local coronavirus measures are something we can expect to see more of, according to Hubert Bruls, Chairman of the Security Council. When it comes to regions experiencing higher levels of coronavirus infections, we can expect to see face mask rules, or experiments, taking place. “Those regions should also have perspective for how they can act. That means you’re going to see some differences. The good news today is that we’ve agreed on that.”
Different security regions will have different approaches to curbing the spread of coronavirus. Some mayors favour increased crowd control over face masks, which means that they want to spread people out more in crowded areas. Others say that they want to introduce face masks on top of the already existing measures, because some places are still too crowded.
Technically, though, emergency ordinances can only be decided by the Cabinet: mayors have no authority to do so, and neither does Parliament. Accordingly, it’s not yet clear how these local experiments are to take place.
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Feature image: DutchReview/Canva