The Dutch government has decided to extend its exclusion until 9 February due to a persistently high number of Covid-19 infections and the presence of the more contagious variant of the coronavirus in the UK.
“We are very concerned about the variant,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte told a news conference late Tuesday. Under the restrictions, social contact is limited to two people indoors, travel outside the country is not recommended, and people are advised to work from home and schools, restaurants and non-essential shops remain closed.
Belgium also extended its exclusion by another two weeks last Friday, amid an increase in infections as people return from holidays, despite authorities strongly advising them to travel abroad. As of Wednesday, the country had an average of 2,000 infections per day, an increase of 30% compared to the end of December. More than 20,000 people have died in Belgium since the start of the pandemic.
In Germany, the authorities continued to tighten restrictions on movement and socialization. The state of Bavaria has become one of the first governments in the world to make the wearing of high-quality N95 masks that can block viruses in public transport and in shops mandatory.
In Berlin, state authorities banned residents from traveling more than 15km outside the capital once the number of new cases exceeded 200 per 100,000 residents over the past seven days – a level expected to be reached later this week as infections continue to rise.
Cases in the most populous country in Europe recovered after a holiday-induced dive. According to the Robert Koch Institute of Infectious Diseases, Germany registered 19,600 new cases on Tuesday, about the same as a week ago, with 1,060 new deaths related to Covid-19 in one day.
The current exclusion could last until the end of January, and stricter restrictions may be needed to stop the spread of the more contagious variant of the virus, Health Minister Jens Spahn told Deutschlandfunk’s public radio.