Dutch PM to address the nation on Covid developments tonight

Prime Minister Mark Rutte will be speaking to the Dutch population regarding the state of affairs around the coronavirus pandemic at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. It is expected that he will announce stricter measures.

The speech will be held from his office in the Torentje, sources in The Hague told broadcaster NOS.

The government is holding various crisis meetings today, the first with the Ministers most involved in the fight against Covid-19, then with the entire cabinet, and then with the Security Council, which consists of the mayors that head the 25 security regions in the country.

Ahead of the first crisis meeting, Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health told NOS that more needs to be done "to get where we need to get". 

In March, when the coronavirus pandemic really hit the Netherlands for the first time, the Prime Minister also addressed the nation from his office. At the time, Rutte warned that the coronavirus would be part of daily life for a long time to come. He appealed to the Dutch population to do whatever possible to continue to help each other.

"It is a time to put the common interest above the personal interest," he said then. "The task is great. We must accomplish this with all 17 million people. Together, we will overcome this. Pay some attention to each other. I'm counting on you." 

Some 7 million people watched that speech on March 16.