NOS (Google Translation) – The cabinet is aiming for many corona measures to come to an end at the end of the month. Sources from The Hague emphasize that final decisions have yet to be made, but the cabinet is considering abolishing the corona admission ticket, as well as the rule to keep one and a half meters away and wear a mouth cap. Festivals and other places where many people are, would then become accessible from February 25 with a negative test (“1G”).
Earlier, namely next Friday, other relaxations would come into effect. Now, for example, restaurants, cafes, theaters, cinemas and museums still have to close at 10 p.m., but according to the sources, the cabinet wants to adjust that time due to the relatively favorable hospital figures.
The new closing time has not yet been determined; there is talk of an extension until 11 p.m., midnight or 1 a.m. When the night catering opens, no more people than 500 will be allowed in.
Advice to work from home expires
Customers in cafes should no longer necessarily have to sit from the end of next week. Furthermore, it seems that the advice to work from home will expire, as will the advice to receive a maximum of four people a day at home.
On Tuesday, the cabinet will make a decision about the relaxation of next week. Then there is also a press conference, this time only by Minister Kuipers of Health.
Rutte: chance of relaxation is really big
This morning there was a short meeting of the cabinet about the measures. It was held completely online. According to Prime Minister Rutte, as it looks now, the chance is “really high” that relaxation is possible.
They could then go into effect before the weekend next week. But he also emphasized that the cabinet is still waiting for an OMT advice and that it also wants to consult with the mayors.
Kuipers did not want to say much about relaxation this afternoon, but like Rutte, he used the words “cautiously optimistic”: “The number of infections is very high, but luckily the pressure on healthcare is not too bad,” he emphasized. About the extension of opening hours, he said it is something “we are emphatically looking at”.