Gov't press conference on Covid-19 situation scheduled for Thursday

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health will hold a press conference on Thursday evening, to update Netherlands residents on the state of affairs around the coronavirus and the increasing number of infections, government information service RVD announced on Tuesday.

If deemed necessary, "additional regional measures" will also be announced at the press conference, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports said to NU.nl. It was not yet clear exactly what this could entail.

The press conference will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. It will be the first major Cabinet press conference on the subject since June 24.

The number of Covid-19 infections in the Netherlands has been rising again for several weeks. Public health institute RIVM first sounded the alarm on July 21, reporting that the number new positive tests doubled in a week. Last week Tuesday, the new cases had not doubled, but at an increase of 61 percent the RIVM was still concerned.

The latest weekly coronavirus figures were published by the RIVM at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. The figures showed a substantial increase in new coronavirus infections, and 40 more hospitalizations for Covid-19.