As the Netherlands prepares to celebrate the second Christmas under strict health restrictions, Prime Minister Mark Rutte admitted in an interview with De Telegraaf that he had made “mistakes” in managing the health crisis.
Liberal Rutte, in an interview published today, acknowledged that he had made “communication” mistakes and admitted that the booster campaign “could have started earlier”.
“I have not been able to convince people enough about the basic measures,” he told the Telegraaf.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, I insisted too much on the responsibility of the people and too little on the mandatory measures,” he said, noting that “communication errors” had been made.
“We could have started booster vaccination earlier,” he said.
In addition, the measures against Covid, which were imposed in mid-November and later tightened, “probably were not strict enough”, according to the prime minister.
One week before Christmas, a new lockdown was imposed on the population in the face of a new wave of Covid-19 and the spread of the Omicron variant.
All non-essential stores, restaurants, bars, cinemas, museums and theaters are closed until January 14 and schools at least until January 9.
Outdoors gatherings of only two people are allowed, except for exceptions such as funerals. However, no traffic restrictions were decided.
On Christmas day, the day after and for the New Year period, citizens will be able to exceptionally receive at home four guests over 13 years old. On other days, this number is reduced to two.
During a debate in parliament this week, Dutch lawmakers criticized the government’s lack of long-term vision, the slowness of the vaccination campaign and called for more investment in health.
“We are all on the same ship in Europe (…) because of the spread of Omicron,” Rutte told the Telegraaf.
The Netherlands recorded a 33% drop in hospitalizations last week as well as a 27% drop in intensive care unit admissions and a 19% drop in positive diagnostic tests, according to the Dutch Institute of Public Health RIVM.
Source: AMPE
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Source From: Capital
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