The easiest way to show you don’t care about people is to forego a face mask
Both the UMCG and Matini Hospital in Groningen will require everyone to wear a face mask again, following the huge rise in Coronavirus case numbers in Groningen- making it one of the worst affected areas in Europe. As reported by the GIC, the hospitals have made the announcement via their Facebook pages.
Considering that the face mask is a cheap, non-medical, and highly effective way to curb the transmission of the Coronavirus, it is a mystery why large numbers of people howl that it impinges upon their ‘personal freedoms’.
In any case, the request to wear masks at the Groninger hospitals has been introduced to protect other visitors, and the vulnerable patients in the hospital. There are currently no changes to the visiting arrangements otherwise
The legal obligation to wear a mask was removed at the end of June, in the same package of measures that saw night-clubs opened- and has precipitated a huge rise in Coronavirus figures.
People must still wear a mask on board all public transport, and at stations, bus stops, and airports; but not in shops, restaurants, or other inside locations. In recent days, however, many hospitals and healthcare institutions have asked to wear face masks again.
According to the Dutch government’s Coronavirus dashboard, there were 421 new positive tests in the city of Groningen alone. This is a huge rise on the numbers for June (24 June saw only 5 new cases in the city), but luckily slightly down on the 7-day average.