Eindhoven mayor Jorritsma would have rather waited with Covid measure relaxations

Mayor of Eindhoven and chairman of the Southeast Brabant security region John Jorritsma would have rather waited at least a week before relaxing the coronavirus measures. "It would have been a good thing for me to wait until the moment when it was really possible to take that first step," he said in the television program WNL Op Zondag.

A group of intensive care doctors from hospitals in Brabant has written an urgent letter about the situation in ICs to the Ministry of Health, the board of the National Network Acute Care (LNAZ) and the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution (LCPS). The doctors warn that "the Dutch population does not seem to realize how close we are at the moment when the limit of our IC capacity is reached".

Jorritsma says he understands these concerns: "We are almost at the peak of the curve, but we are not there yet. That is why it is a matter of finding balance. We speak with one voice from the Security Council, so I have taken a loyal position, but I expressed my concerns about it last Monday."

Brabant was the epicenter of the corona crisis during the first outbreak. "What I saw then, I don't want to experience again. It would have been a good thing to me if we had waited at least a week", says Jorritsma.