62% say Covid rules should be relaxed further; Strong support for hospitality, cultural sector

Roughly 62 percent believe that the Cabinet should have loosened coronavirus restrictions for the catering and cultural sector, a survey by EenVandaag among twenty thousand people showed.

On Friday, the Cabinet announced that shops and contact profession are allowed to open until 5 p.m. starting on Saturday. Restaurants, cafes, bars, museums, theaters and other catering and cultural establishments must remain closed until at least January 25.

The vast majority of respondents were pleased that restrictions were loosened for some sectors but believed more could have been done for the catering and cultural industry, which the pandemic hit hard. Three-quarters of respondents thought that restaurants should at least partially open and 64 percent were in favor of opening museums, theaters and cinemas.

Around 20 percent of respondents believed there should be no restrictions whatsoever, while 12 percent thought that the Cabinet went too far by removing some measures for the retail sector and contact professions.

Respondents were less concerned about the coronavirus than two months prior, partly due to the advance in the booster campaign. While in November, 72 percent were worried about the coronavirus, that number fell to slightly less than half in the most recent survey.