Catering establishments rarely reprimanded for ignoring Covid rules
In the three weeks since coronavirus access passes have been mandatory in catering establishments, municipalities issued hardly any warnings for breaking this and other coronavirus rules. Amsterdam by far issued the most warnings at only 14, NU.nl reports after speaking to five large municipalities.
On Thursday, a study by I&O Research showed that a third of catering guests weren't checked for their coronavirus access pass. The number of issued warnings doesn't seem to reflect this.
Amsterdam told NU.nl that it issued 14 warnings to catering establishments in the past three weekends - six for violating the midnight closing time, the other eight for not checking access passes properly.
Utrecht had to close vegan restaurant Waku Waku because its owners refused to check access passes, but otherwise, the city's restaurants and bars seem to be following the rules. "We received about ten reports of violations, but we discussed them with the entrepreneurs. We have not yet had to issue formal warnings," a spokesperson said to the newspaper. Utrecht is the only city that had to close a business.
Student city Groningen gave NU.nl a similar statement. The city discussed violations with several businesses, after which they followed the rules, a spokesperson said.
Eindhoven acted preemptively, talking to catering businesses in advance on how they should check access passes. In the past three weeks, Groningen identified five "excessive violations."
Rotterdam issued no official warnings in the past three weeks. A spokesperson said that the introduction of wristbands made enforcement easier on catering businesses. People have their access pass checked at a central point and get a wristband with which they can visit bars and restaurants the entire evening. "That helps for the flow and also ensures that not every entrepreneur has to do a separate check," the spokesperson said.