Dutch PM Mark Rutte announces Western Europe's first partial Covid lockdown of winter
Sakshi Education
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced Western Europe's first partial Covid lockdown of the winter, with three weeks of restrictions for shops, sport and catering. He said that the annoying, drastic move was in response to record infections and rising intensive care cases. Meanwhile, Police have fired water cannon against hundreds of protesters in The Hague.
Dutch PM Mark Rutte announces Western Europe's first partial Covid lockdown of winter
Last weekend too, thousands of protesters marched through The Hague in anger at existing Covid restrictions. Latest daily figures on Friday showed 16,287 new Covid cases, just short of Thursday's record but up a third on the previous week. Dutch vaccination rates are relatively high, with 82.4% of over-12s having two doses, that's 73% of the total population.
Austria is also expected to back a lockdown for unvaccinated people this weekend. In Austria, vaccination coverage is at 65% and the country is expected to go for a national lockdown for the unvaccinated. Denmark, which had downgraded coronavirus as no longer a socially critical disease, has re-instated a Covid pass that was phased out in September.
