Current Covid measures must be better enforced: Outbreak team member

The Outbreak Management Team (OMT) will firstly advise the Cabinet to better implement the current measures in the fight against the rising number of coronavirus infections. Physician microbiologist and OMT member Marc Bonten sees that the previously advised restrictions are implemented "differently," he told Nieuwsuur.

Bonten mentioned checking QR codes that show whether someone is vaccinated, cured, or tested as an example. That leaves a lot to be desired, he said in the TV program. Bonten also sees that in places where QR codes are not required, people no longer keep their distance from each other.

According to Bonten, in the OMT's previous advice, the message was that people should continue to adhere to the 1.5-meter rule if possible. "Now a bit of a trend has arisen of: all measures are over, it is no longer necessary," said Bonten. "It has everything to do with how we communicate it."

The medical microbiologist also said that the OMT will issue advice about a possible distinction in measures between vaccinated people and people who have not had the injections. But that will not be an easy task, according to Bonten. According to him, people who have not been vaccinated are scattered all over the country. "How exactly you should impose measures for those people will be quite a challenge."

Caretaker Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Health) believes that "the epidemic has increasingly become an epidemic of unvaccinated people." He said on Monday that he "does not want to rule out anything at all" regarding additional measures. Nor whether possible measures could only be for unvaccinated people or target groups or certain regions where the number of unvaccinated people is the highest.

The OMT will present its advice to the Cabinet on Thursday.