The Netherlands has, like every country in the world, introduced measures to tackle coronavirus – handwashing, staying at home as much as possible, working from home, keeping a distance from others. People in the Netherlands are complying with the measures in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Thanks to those measures, the Netherlands is slowly moving in the right direction. The pressure on our health system and healthcare professionals is still immense. People are still being admitted to hospital with coronavirus, but the number of patients is falling steadily. That pressure needs to drop further so that non-COVID related health care can be restarted, which is very important.
Careful steps will be taken to give children and teenagers little more freedom
The government has therefore decided to extend most measures until 19 May, and all measures will be assessed again in the week before that. This means for example that all bars, restaurants and tourist attractions will remain closed at least until that date. This also goes for close-contact professions such as hairdressers. However, there is some space to relax a limited amount of measures now. Careful steps will be taken to give children and teenagers a little more freedom.
Primary schools and childcare centres for children aged 0 to 4 will reopen on 11 May. From 29 April children and teenagers will have more scope for participating in organised sports activities and play outdoors. Since large events mean bringing more people in public areas and public transport, the ban on such events has been extended to 1 September 2020.