The Netherlands will be placed in “containment” on Sunday, for the Christmas holiday period, in an attempt to stem a sharp increase in cases of the Omicron variant, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced on Saturday. “I am here tonight in a gloomy mood. To sum it up in one sentence, the Netherlands will return to containment from tomorrow,” Mark Rutte said during a televised press conference.
“Inevitable”, says Prime Minister
“This is inevitable with the fifth wave and with Omicron spreading even faster than we had feared. We must intervene now as a precaution”, continued the Prime Minister. All non-essential stores, restaurants, bars, cinemas, museums and theaters must therefore close their doors from Sunday to January 14, while schools must keep their doors closed until at least January 9, said Mark Rutte.
At the same time, the number of guests that people are allowed to receive in their homes is reduced from four to two, except for Christmas Day, December 25. The head of the Dutch epidemic management team, Jaap van Dissel, said during the same press conference that Omicron will overtake the Delta variant to become dominant in the Netherlands by the end of the year. .
Four days after new restrictions
The Prime Minister’s announcement comes just after an emergency government meeting and four days after further restrictions decided by authorities, including a week-long Christmas break in primary schools. Even before this “confinement”, long queues had formed in front of the stores during the day on Saturday. Many Dutch people were doing their Christmas shopping, as information has already started circulating about new restrictions, such as 19-year-old Ayman Massori, who told AFP in The Hague that he wanted to “collect gifts”.
Health restrictions imposed by the Dutch government are increasingly unpopular, with riots erupting in cities like Rotterdam and The Hague for several nights in November. Almost 86% of adults are vaccinated in the Netherlands.