EU travel advice for Netherlands may be disappointing, Health Min. warns

The new European travel advice for the Netherlands may be disappointing, caretaker Health Minister Hugo de Jonge cautioned on Wednesday evening. The European center for disease control ECDC bases the travel advice color codes on the average number of positive Covid-19 tests in a country over the past 14 days, among other things. And coronavirus cases in the Netherlands has been on the rise. The map is updated every Thursday, NU.nl reports.

Currently, the Netherlands is mainly code yellow, with a few areas even getting code green. This means there are no major travel restrictions for Netherlands residents in other European Union countries. But due to the rapidly increasing number of coronavirus infections, there is a chance that the ECDC will move the Netherlands to code red or even dark red, which means that travelers from the Netherlands may first have to quarantine at their destination.

De Jonge expects that this week's updates will not have major consequences for the Netherlands, but that next week's likely will.

Parliamentarians are concerned about the increasing infections. The D66 and PvdA asked De Jonge to find out from the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) what measures the Netherlands should take to stabilize the infection figures again. Because the current increase could endanger the free movement of Netherlands residents in Europe, they said. 

De Jonge said that he asked the OMT for urgent advice. But he also said that he did not intend to take any new coronavirus measures willy-nilly, telling concerned parliamentarians that he wants to remain faithful to the coronavirus policy and the goals therein.