In his latest press conference on March 15th, Health Minister Ernst Kuipers confirmed the Dutch government will further ease Corona measures starting from Wednesday 23rd.
The Minister stated that even with the recent increase in cases, the healthcare system has been able to manage in a satisfactory way, thus the times are ripe for measures relaxation. According to the Coronavirus Dashboard website, in the past week 61,322 people have tested positive and currently 1,796 patients with COVID-19 are hospitalized.
While the pandemic is still ongoing, Kuipers said it is time to put trust in Dutch citizens’ common sense.
What is going to change from next week then? According to the government’s website, there will be no more advice to work from home half of the time, no more face mask requirement on public transportation and no more pre-admission testing (1G) for events with more than 500 people.
In addition, travellers to the Netherlands coming from other EU countries or from the Schengen area will no longer require proof of vaccination, of recovery or a negative test. The same rules will also be lifted in the case of EU nationals traveling from outside the EU and the Schengen area, but the EU entry ban will for now stay in place for non-EU nationals.
The rules haven’t changed in case symptoms should arise. The advice is to stay home and do a self-test, and if that is positive make an appointment at the GGD to confirm the result. Quarantine for positive people is still fixed at 5 days, and after that can be interrupted after 24 hours without symptoms.
The government has not set a specific date for further reviewing Corona measures, but will be keeping an eye on the situation and make decisions based on developments.
