Route: The Netherlands is in a strict lockdown

LAST UPDATE: 09.13

The Netherlands is entering a severe lockdown from today to address the risk of a new jump in COVID-19 cases due to the micron mutation, said the country’s Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a press conference, as reported by Reuters.

The Dutch Prime Minister pointed out yesterday that the lockdown is inevitable due to the fifth wave of the’s micron mutation of the coronavirus. “The Netherlands will close again. This is inevitable because of the fifth wave that comes with the micron mutation,” he said.

As announced, the lockdown will remain in effect until at least January 14. Shops with non-essential goods and products, bars, restaurants and other public places will be closed from December 19. All schools will be closed from December 20 and will remain closed until January 9.

The government also urged Dutch households not to receive more than two guests during the holidays and for public gatherings to not exceed two people.

If we do not take action today, there will be an “unthinkable situation in our hospitals” which have limited their other activities to treat Covid-19 patients, Rutte warned.

The Netherlands has been in a partial lockdown since November due to the coronavirus outbreak, with daily cases exceeding 20,000 from the previous month from the October low of 1,602. The country announced 14,742 confirmed cases today.

Speaking to the Dutch parliament this week, the head of the National Institutes of Health and the Environment, Jaap van Diesel, warned that the new micron strain was spreading two to three times faster than the delta mutation.

The Netherlands has announced that it plans to speed up the campaign for the booster dose as it lags behind other European countries. Austria has given 3.3 million booster doses and Belgium 2.8 million, while the Netherlands has given about 1.5 million doses, according to data from the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Bloomberg.

According to the agency, the country no longer has many licensed intensive care units. For every 100,000 inhabitants, there are just seven vacant ICU beds, compared with 48 in Germany and 19 in France, according to a University of Oxford study compiled by the OECD, the World Bank and governments.