(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 19 - The resigning Dutch government, despite the difficulties for the current political crisis, intends to announce new restrictions tomorrow afternoon to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Health Minister Hugo de Jonge made it known in a letter to parliament, according to the Guardian.
The Netherlands has been in lockdown for a month and will remain there until at least 9 February, but the slow decline in the number of new infections and the threat posed by new variants have prompted the government to consider a tightening that should also include a curfew, for the first time. since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Dutch public health institute announced that new infections have fallen by 21.5% in the past week but that the decrease has been "overshadowed" by an increase in the percentage of people affected by the new variant of the virus found in England.
About 10% of new infections are attributable to this strain and according to the institute the percentage could rise to at least 50% by mid-February.
To the point that in the Netherlands there is now talk of "two separate epidemics, one with the old variant in which infections are decreasing and one with the English variant in which the number of infections is increasing".
(HANDLE).
