Dutch reopen primary schools and daycare but ban events until September

The Netherlands will start reopening primary schools and daycare centres from May 11 but organised events remain banned until September 1, prime minister Mark Rutte told a news conference on Tuesday evening.

‘This is the maximum we can do at the moment,’ Rutte told reporters. In particular, relaxing the social distancing rules too quickly will lead to a second wave of infections which needs to be averted. ‘These are difficult considerations but it’s a question of better safe than sorry,’ Rutte said. ‘We have to be very cautious.’

The decision to reopen schools is based on a wide range of research which shows that young children are unlikely to pass on the virus or develop serious symptoms themselves, according to Jaap van Dissel, head of the public health institute RIVM.

‘There are no clusters in which schools would appear to be a hot spot,’ Van Dissel said. ‘And the closure of the schools has had no impact on the spread.’ Teachers will have the right to be tested for the virus if they have symptoms.

Young children will also be allowed to resume taking parts in team sports, but without formal matches which pose a bigger risk of spreading the virus. The under-18s may also take part in team sport training again, provided they keep to the 1.5 metre rule.

‘But this means no parents watching, and showering at home,’ Rutte said. In addition, he said, officials will look at the options to make sure youngsters who are not members of a club can also join in organised sports.

The ban on events is being extended from June 1 to September 1, because ‘we can’t cope with the risks,’ Rutte said. ‘This means no professional football until September 1,’ the prime minister said. ‘We cannot avoid having to make this sacrifice.’

The Dutch football association KNVB had hoped to resume training next month in preparation for completing the season before the beginning of August.

Visits to nursing homes remain banned because of the risk to the most vulnerable people in society, Rutte said, adding that experts have been asked to look into the options for relaxing this rule.

In addition, more research is also being carried out into the use of face masks and gloves in professions which involve physical contact, but in the meantime hairdressers, manicurists and physiotherapists cannot do their jobs, the prime minister said.

Rutte stressed that the main rules – working home and staying home as much as possible, as well as maintaining a 1.5 metre distance from others – remain paramount.

‘These basic rules have brought us to where we are today,’ he said. ‘This is a virus. The only thing we really know is that the 1.5 metre rule reduces the risk of Covid-19 spreading.’

The basic social distancing rules will be extended until May 20 and in the week prior to that, ministers will decide if they need to be extended further. ‘And we will keep a close eye on developments and remain alert,’ Rutte said.

Beating coronavirus is all about working together, the prime minister said. ‘The freedom of one person cannot be at the expense of the health of another.’

Asked if people could safely book summer holidays, Rutte said: ‘Personally, I have cancelled a few things and am booking nothing. It is up to individuals themselves. But we cannot see more than three weeks ahead.’

This looks like a good place to post today's size- and time-adjusted COVID-19 fatality counts. Methodology details available at the link. To make life simple, I'm posting the country and state data once. The earlier time-series is posted on my About page.

Below are the data. Note for the US as nation, that Day 1 is March 25, which means Day 27 is April 20 for that row of data. You can do the math for the other municipalities to find out what Day XX means for them in calendar times; as a general rule, the last actual data point is the freshest date, but on a Golf timeline it gives each municipality's score as of the "27th hole." Data are sorted by descending Day 27 fatality counts. For the state-level data, I included states alphabetically that only had fatality counts from Day 25 onward.

There is a data quirk on the GitHub pages where the US aggregate data are less than the State-level roll up. I think the NYS data are causing the problem. Caveat Emptor.

Per this article, the US is doing much better than the relatively hands-off Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, Sweden. Of course, as I've said before, they haven't vaporized their service economies. If this winter they go down the toilet while America prospers, I guess that means we got it right. If not, well...

At the state level, not much movement....the Blue states are running away with it - the municipalities with size- and time-adjusted fatalities higher than the US as a whole by Day 26 are New York (Blue), New Jersey (Blue), Connecticut (Blue), Massachusetts (Blue), Michigan (Red), Louisiana (Red), and District of Columbia (Blue), respectively.

Pray for everyone impacted.

Country	Date of Day 1 = day prior to breaching size-adj 1,000 COVID19 fatalities	Population	Day 25	Day 26	Day 27	Day 28	Day 29	Day 30
San Marino	3/3/20	33,574	206,132	215,948	215,948	245,396	255,211	255,211
Andorra	3/21/20	77,543	131,749	140,249	140,249	148,749	148,749	152,999
Belgium	3/19/20	11,524,454	102,947	111,611	118,875	126,967	138,892	147,643
Spain	3/13/20	47,100,396	93,346	98,271	103,498	108,081	112,517	116,190
West Bank and Gaza	3/25/20	11,700	56,334	84,502	84,502	-	-	-
France	3/18/20	67,076,000	68,052	70,809	73,629	77,373	84,448	88,147
Italy	3/5/20	60,243,406	58,966	63,408	67,986	71,963	76,121	80,311
United Kingdom	3/20/20	66,435,550	56,287	60,166	63,961	68,252	72,459	76,878
Netherlands	3/17/20	17,451,031	47,589	50,101	51,876	53,500	55,804	59,392
Sweden	3/23/20	10,333,456	42,512	44,649	48,189	49,114	50,390	-
Ireland	3/25/20	4,921,500	38,236	40,847	46,003	-	-	-
United States	3/25/20	329,556,365	38,664	40,661	42,094	-	-	-
Switzerland	3/16/20	8,586,550	36,385	38,457	39,762	42,449	43,677	45,059
Luxembourg	3/17/20	613,894	28,989	33,283	35,431	37,041	35,968	37,041
Macedonia	3/24/20	679,600	23,761	23,761	24,731	26,186	-	-
Portugal	3/23/20	10,276,617	20,171	21,069	22,031	22,897	23,570	-
Germany	3/25/20	83,149,300	17,673	18,176	19,270	-	-	-
Denmark	3/22/20	5,822,763	17,489	18,168	19,017	19,583	20,092	20,602
Austria	3/23/20	8,902,600	15,177	15,955	16,399	16,732	17,398	-
Iran	3/9/20	83,331,064	12,497	13,027	13,652	14,249	14,787	15,313
Iceland	3/23/20	364,260	7,238	8,143	8,143	8,143	9,047	-
Cyprus	3/23/20	875,900	4,515	4,515	4,515	4,515	4,515	-

Municipality	Date of Day 1 = day prior to breaching size-adj 1,000 COVID19 fatalities	Population (MM)	Day 25	Day 26	Day 27	Day 28	Day 29	Day 30
New York	3/20/20	19,795,791	167,410	180,362	192,881	202,970	213,458	222,448
New Jersey	3/23/20	8,958,013	129,424	141,270	149,731	154,587	161,025	-
Connecticut	3/23/20	3,590,886	89,114	95,080	99,668	103,431	122,154	-
Massachusetts	3/25/20	6,794,422	75,666	82,748	87,744	-	-	-
Michigan	3/24/20	9,922,576	73,932	76,622	79,345	81,903	-	-
Louisiana	3/20/20	4,670,724	62,373	71,475	77,825	81,565	85,587	89,397
District of Columbia	3/24/20	672,228	42,161	44,612	47,064	51,476	-	-
United States	3/25/20	329,556,365	38,664	40,661	42,094	-	-	-
Colorado	3/24/20	5,456,574	23,494	24,702	25,427	27,058	-	-
Georgia	3/23/20	10,214,860	19,712	21,325	21,616	22,003	24,745	-
Nevada	3/24/20	2,890,845	17,214	17,670	18,012	18,582	-	-
Vermont	3/18/20	626,042	13,160	14,213	14,740	15,266	15,792	18,424
Washington	3/8/20	7,170,351	11,444	12,501	13,467	14,616	15,811	17,603
California	3/27/20	39,144,818	10,296	-	-	-	-	-
Delaware	3/27/20	945,934	25,084	-	-	-	-	-
Illinois	3/27/20	12,859,995	34,826	-	-	-	-	-
Indiana	3/26/20	6,619,680	27,979	28,327	-	-	-	-
Mississippi	3/27/20	2,992,333	18,613	-	-	-	-	-
Oklahoma	3/27/20	3,911,338	12,049	-	-	-	-	-
Oregon	3/27/20	4,028,977	6,135	-	-	-	-	-
South Carolina	3/27/20	4,896,146	8,346	-	-	-	-	-

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.