“I am here tonight in a gloomy mood,” said the Prime Minister before announcing the confinement of his country for four weeks.
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Christmas confined. The Netherlands will be placed on Sunday in “confinement”, for the Christmas holiday period, in an attempt to stop the fifth wave of Covid-19 and the strong progression of the Omicron variant, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced on Saturday, December 18. “I’m here tonight in a gloomy mood. To sum it up in one sentence, the Netherlands will return to containment from tomorrow.”Rutte said during a televised press conference.
“This is inevitable with the fifth wave and with Omicron spreading even faster than we had feared. We must intervene now as a precaution.”, continued the Prime Minister. All non-essential stores, restaurants, bars, cinemas, museums and theaters must therefore close their doors from Sunday to January 14, while schools must keep their doors closed until at least January 9.
At the same time, the number of guests that people are allowed to receive in their homes is reduced from four to two, except for Christmas Day, December 25. The head of the Dutch epidemic management team, Jaap van Dissel, said during the same press conference that Omicron will overtake the Delta variant to become dominant in the Netherlands by the end of the year. .