Dutch government's coronavirus policy losing support

The government's policy to curb the spread of the coronavirus is losing the support of Netherlands residents. At the start of the crisis, 65 percent of the Dutch population supported measures in place against the virus. That dropped to 53 percent a week ago, and to 44 percent this week, according to the Namens Nederland survey, ANP reports.

Nearly 3,500 Netherlands residents completed the survey this week. Almost all respondents called for measures to be relaxed further. Two out of five want all restrictions to be lifted. Half want measures to be relaxed with conditions, such as wearing masks more.

Support for the use of an app to track the spread of the coronavirus is also falling. Now only a quarter of respondents said they would be willing to use such an app. Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health previously said that for this app to be at its most effective, at least 60 percent of the population must use it.

The Namens Nederland survey was set up by NL2025, a partnership of entrepreneurs, athletes, scientists, people from the art world, and others. It is an ongoing survey in which respondents can continuously give their opinion on the coronavirus crisis and measures around it. Over the past three months, the survey was completed over 145 thousand times.