Employers: Coronavirus will be approached the same way as other business risks

Employers will from now on treat the coronavirus in the same way as other business risks. That's according to a spokesperson for employers' associations VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland in a response to the Outbreak Management Team’s (OMT) new Covid-19 recommendation. Because the OMT no longer considers coronavirus testing and isolation necessary. Employers will follow the advice, according to the spokesperson.

According to the OMT, the pandemic is over and the coronavirus is in an endemic phase. That means the virus is part of everyday life and is treated the same as other respiratory infections. However, Health Minister Ernst Kuipers has not yet made a decision on this.

That the pandemic is over is "positive news," said a spokesperson of the employers' associations, and assumes that the employers affiliated with VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland will follow the OMT advice. The associations do not know exactly how companies will deal with the coronavirus. "Business owners have an obligation to identify business risks. Covid-19, as a respiratory disease, is one of them," according to the spokesperson.

However, "The coronavirus is approached like other diseases, without special measures. As with the flu, for example, employees with corona can report sick," the spokesman explained.

Employers have long looked forward to the end of the pandemic, the spokesperson claimed, because there will be no new Covid-19 measures then. Last year in May, the last measure was lifted. Since then, face masks were no longer mandatory at Dutch airports.