‘A reopening plan, but the one-and-a-half-metre rule stays through the summer holidays’

According to the government's published reopening plan, many easings are coming over the next weeks and months. But for now the basic rule of one and a half metres' distance stays in place through the summer holidays as well.

Caretaker minister Hugo de Jonge hints at this in answer to press questions about the basic rules.

These three basic rules, washing, distance and testing, are listed in the reopening plan separately from the steps to be taken.

Waiting for the summer

In those steps several corona measures are gradually wound down, subject to conditions. So what about that one and a half metres?

De Jonge sees scope for big steps, but is clear about that basic rule: “What we do still have to do is wait a while for the summer.”

“When it comes to really letting go of that one and a half metres – yes, that is one of the hardest things to judge right now, when that moment could come”, says the minister responsible for public health.

“But we will not wait a day longer if we think there is a chance.”

Exotic virus variants

The face of the health ministry links holidays to possible exotic virus variants.

• “(…) Wait and see. Whether in summer, coming back from holiday, we do not bring all sorts of exotic variants of the virus home in our suitcases.”

“Which means, and you cannot predict it at the moment, but which means you might want to keep that one and a half metres a while longer, for safety's sake.”

The reopening plan: step by step more is possible, the travel advice is missing

In a news item from the the Dutch government the reopening plan is explained further. ‘Step by step more is possible’. Strikingly, there is no mention of the travel advice in the overview.

• The travel advice is still negative for now (world on code orange) and applies until mid-May.

The reopening plan does not show the intended end date for that advice, while other proposed easings do each come with a date. We shall see.