The Amsterdam-Amstelland Safety Region is preparing new, stricter measures to break the second wave of contamination. Preferably through the cabinet, for maximum impact on the groups in which the virus is spreading.
The top of the Amsterdam-Amstelland Safety Region will meet for the second time this week on Friday to prepare for the introduction of much stricter corona rules. According to various sources, the table is to close specific catering establishments such as wedding and banquet halls, possibly cinemas, reducing the audience at (sports) events and further restricting group meetings. Last week, the maximum group size was already reduced from 100 to 50, both indoors and outdoors. This has to go down much further, to 30 or maybe even less.
Everything is also being prepared so that this region can scale up to “Severe level” early next week. Within this scenario, also referred to as the “High phase”, a “partial lockdown” is again possible, as mayor Femke Halsema, chairman of the Security Region, wrote in a letter about the crisis approach in mid-August.
Victims
The number of infections diagnosed in Amsterdam is currently between 30 and 40 per 100,000 inhabitants per day; over the past 24 hours, around 260 people have tested positive here.
The new tightening will not take effect on Friday. As far as Amsterdam and the neighboring municipalities are concerned, measures that restrict people’s freedom of movement, or that cause economic damage, are preferably taken by the cabinet, via a national instruction. The Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb also argued for this yesterday. The idea is that people then stick to it better. Moreover, the support of The Hague helps in the defense of policy against victims such as the hospitality industry or the cultural sector.
The government is expected to ratify the new measures via a press conference on Tuesday.
Measures to keep out tourists and visitors, such as closing hotels or parking garages, are not in the offing at the moment, because the number of visitors has declined sharply recently. The concerns are great not only in Amsterdam, but also among the regional municipalities. “The measures announced by the cabinet last week will probably have too little effect,” writes Mayor Erik Boog van Diemen, who is also at the table, on his Facebook page. “New measures seem inevitable.”
Expected influx
Yvonne van Duijnhoven, head of infectious diseases at the GGD Amsterdam, said in a conversation with AT5 that public health is at risk due to the rapidly increasing infection figures.
The number of Covid-19 infections in the Amsterdam Safety Region, especially in the city itself, is so high that something must be done. This week it became clear that hospitals are again so full of corona patients that regular care is being squeezed. Amsterdam hospitals have started relocating covid patients to regions far outside the city to cope with the expected influx. The GGD is also limited in its ability to carry out source and contact investigations for infected people. They must now inform their environment themselves.
In the Amsterdam-Amstelland Safety Region, decisions are taken that apply in Amsterdam and five surrounding municipalities: Diemen, Amstelveen, Ouder-Amstel, Aalsmeer and Uithoorn. All emergency services are also represented in it.
