Mayors prepping for second Covid-19 wave; not necessarily nationwide lockdown

The mayors that head the 25 security regions in the Netherlands are preparing for a possible second wave of the coronavirus, Nijmegen mayor Hubert Bruls said after a meeting of the Security Council on Monday. New lockdown measures may be necessary this summer, but they will more likely be local and regional measures, rather than a nationwide lockdown, he said, NOS reports.

"We're thinking with the knowledge we have now, much more than four months ago, that we at least do not have to put the whole country in all kinds of measures," said Bruls, chairman of the Security Council. He stressed the importance of source and contact tracing for new infections. That and local measures must prevent the entire country from having to go into lockdown, he said.

"Each of us is a bit afraid of the horror of us all being back in those measures for months," Bruls said, referring to the mayors that head the other 24 security regions and make up the Security Council.

Monday's meeting of the Security Council will be the last such regular meeting for the time being. The weekly meetings were started when the country went into its intelligent lockdown after the pandemic arrived in the Netherlands. 

The mayors discussed what measures can be taken if there is a new outbreak somewhere. While Bruls is confident that regional and local measures will be able to curb a new outbreak, he stressed that no scenario can be excluded. "The virus hasn't been eradicated, and we don't have a vaccine yet."