New Covid measures unnecessary at this stage, Health Minister says

The past days' coronavirus infection figures seem to indicate that no additional measures are needed at the moment, Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health said before the weekly council of ministers meeting on Friday, ANP reports.

The government previously said that if infections continue to rise, "draconian" measures would be needed. But the past day's figures seem to indicate that infections are leveling off, De Jonge said. He added that he would only relax "when we have taken the bend". The coming days should indicate whether infections are decreasing.

Once it is clear whether infections are decreasing, the government will decide if further measures are needed to accelerate that decline, De Jonge said.

Earlier this week, Jaap van Dissel of public health institute RIVM explained to parliament that stricter coronavirus measures now would have no effect on the peak of the second wave - the peak number of hospitalized patients would be the same, and the peak was expected to be reached in the first days of November. "But it does have an effect on the speed of decline, and that also has an effect on the burden of healthcare," he said

On Thursday, Ernst Kuipers of the national network for acute care LNAZ said that the number of coronavirus hospitalizations also seem to be stabilizing. "That would be fantastic" if this were to become a continuing trend, he stated.