Mayors hoping for relaxed measures for cooped up young people
The mayors in the Netherlands are hoping that the government will specifically relax anti-coronavirus measures around children and young people. They are concerned about the lack of movement room for young people and "the enforcement problems that creates", mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam said on Monday evening after a meeting of the Security Council - the council for the safety regions in the Netherlands, Dagblad van het Noorden reports.
The Security Council met with Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security in Utrecht on Monday evening. According to Hubert Bruls, mayor of Nijmegen and chairman of the Security Council, there is quite a lot of room to relax measures restricting young people. Exactly how that should be done, he will leave up to the government to decide, he said on Monday. Though he warned that the "valve should not be released too much".
Minister Grapperhaus said he would look into what can be done for young people, according to the newspaper. "I understand the situation of young people, I take it very seriously," he said when leaving the meeting. "Young people are severely restricted. They're doing an excellent job. A small group of experts and the chairman of the safety regions are going to look closely with mayor Halsema of Amsterdam and two Ministers to see what exactly we can do within the boundaries to make it a little more bearable. First, definitive advise is required in response to the OMT advice."
The OMT is the government's Outbreak Management Team - a team of experts that is advising the government on how to deal with the coronavirus crisis. According to RTL Nieuws, the OMT's most recent advice to the government stated that primary schools can reopen, but restaurants and other catering businesses should stay closed until mid-May, and events should be canceled until at least September.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte will hold a press conference on Tuesday evening to explain new measures or measures that can be relaxed.
