Two-thirds of NL residents expect more lockdowns in the future

On Tuesday, Health Minister Ernst Kuipers announced that the Netherlands would relax most coronavirus restrictions from February 25. But 68 percent of Netherlands residents don't expect that this will last. There will be more coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions in the future, they said in a Hart van Nederland survey of 3,760 of its panel members.

Some worried respondents believe that the Netherlands will go back into lockdown when the relaxed measures result in full intensive care units. "Let everyone just behave normally and not act like idiots again, because then we will have measures again," one respondent said. Others think lockdown will happen once a new coronavirus variant rears its head. 

Despite these concerns, 41 percent of respondents think the government took too long to relax the restrictions.

Carnival 2020 went down in the books as the first coronavirus hotspot in the Netherlands. This year, Carnival starts on February 26 - one day after most measures have disappeared. 

No reason to panic, 36 percent of respondents think. "If football and events like Formula 1 are allowed, then they should not take away our Limburg Carnival tradition. That would make me doubly angry. This event cannot be held in the summer," one respondent said.

34 percent fear that this year's Carnival will result in another massive outbreak.