Features (2)
Menu

Soualiga Newsday Features (4285)

Ministers agree more help for companies, theatres hit by coronavirus

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Ministers have agreed to extend financial help for companies facing difficulty meeting their fixed costs because of coronavirus to support industries, including suppliers and transport firms.

All companies which have lost more than 30% of their turnover because of coronavirus will be eligible to apply for funding under the TVL scheme to help meet costs such as rent and electricity bills.

The amount of support can go up to €90,000. The measure will only apply in the final quarter of 2020 and will cost the treasury some €140m. The new support package was announced at a press conference held by the three responsible ministers, Eric Wiebes (economic affairs), Wouter Koolmees (social affairs) and Wopke Hoekstra (finance).

The new ruling is being introduced because the impact of the pandemic on the economy remains unpredictable, Hoekstra said. ‘The 3% economic growth forecast for next year depends on there not being a lockdown,’ he said.

‘We are now in a much more difficult situation and new economic consequences are unavoidable. There will be an impact on jobs, companies and the treasury.’

Hospitality industry

Ministers have also agreed that cafe, bar and restaurant owners will be able to claim an average of €2,500 in compensation for stock they cannot use because of the temporary closure and investments on making their premises coronavirus-proof.

The amount that can be claimed will depend on their turnover. Event organisers will also be able to claim an additional payment averaging around €14,000 and €40m has been set aside to help theatres which do not get subsidies but have been hit by show cancellations.

In addition, ministers are working on specific measures to help shops police social distancing regulations on a ‘public private basis’ and on encouraging people to take temporary jobs to bail out sectors such as the health service and education.

Plans to allow companies to take a ‘time out’ period so they can hibernate rather than file for bankruptcy are also taking shape, ministers said. More details about what these will entail will be published in the coming weeks.

(DutchNews)

Read more...

Current coronavirus rules will last well into December, Dutch prime minister says

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – The partial lockdown imposed in the Netherlands two weeks ago will last deep into December, prime minister Mark Rutte and health minister Hugo de Jonge told reporters on Tuesday evening.

‘You can assume that you will celebrate Sinterklaas in a small group, with no more than three people from outside your household,’ Rutte said. ‘It is still too early to say about Christmas.’

Ministers are also working on new recommendations for holiday travel, both in the Netherlands and abroad, and that could be published as early as later this week, Rutte said.

‘We are now at the crossroads,’ Rutte said. ‘It is too early to say if the measures of October 13 are having an impact and too early to take more measures. If we look at the figures, the week on week growth is slowing, but the number of new infections is still too big and must go down.’

In total, 67,543 positive coronavirus tests were registered with public health institute RIVM in the week up to Tuesday 10am, a rise of 22% on the previous week but well down on the figure two weeks ago.

However, the coming days will be crucial, Rutte said. ‘You can assume we will hold another press conference next Tuesday and that all the options are being looked at.’

Should the number of positive tests not go down in the coming days, Rutte said he would not hesitate to act earlier.

Loneliness

However, people should be aware that far reaching measures will have a major impact on the economy, increase loneliness, and impact more heavily on students and on teachers, the prime minister said.

The R factor, which indicates how the virus is spreading is still above 1, and must be brought down below that in the coming days, De Jonge said. ‘The speed at which it declines is also important when we are deciding about other measures,’ he said.

Asked why more measures are not being introduced now to reduce the pressure on hospitals, De Jonge said the people being hospitalised now were infected last week. The hospital admission peak will be later than the peak in new infections, he said.

Some 2,358 people are currently being treated in hospital for coronavirus, of whom 529 are in intensive care. More coronavirus patients continue to be admitted than are discharged, the patient coordination centre LCPS said earlier on Tuesday.

(DutchNews)

Read more...

All eyes on Tuesday, as coronavirus cases may be leveling off

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – A further 10,353 positive coronavirus tests were registered with public health institute RIVM in the 24 hours to Monday morning, but it is difficult to assess whether cases are continuing to rise, given the weekend’s computer problems.

On Friday the RIVM received 10,007 notifications but Saturday’s numbers were incomplete due to IT issues. Saturday and Sunday’s average was 9,438 but ‘it is unclear if all the missing numbers have been processed,’ a spokesman told broadcaster NOS on Monday.

The agency will give more details on Tuesday when it publishes its weekly overview of developments. This will also include an update of the crucial R number, which indicates how fast the virus is spreading.

The national patient distribution centre LCPS said on Monday that 291 coronavirus patients had been admitted to regular hospital wards over the past 24 hours, and 49 people, many who were already hospitalised, were taken to intensive care wards.

The new admissions take the number of coronavirus patients currently being treated in hospital to 2,249, up 102 in 24 hours. LCPS chairman Ernst Kuipers told reporters on Monday he expects 2,500 people to be in hospital with coronavirus by the end of the month and does not expect any drop in the number of infections in the coming two weeks.

‘If we go on as we are, we will need to take additional measures,’ he said. Some 20% to 30% of regular hospital treatment requiring an overnight stay has been cancelled so that hospitals can cope with the influx of coronavirus patients, he said.

(DutchNews)

Read more...

Education minister Arie Slob goes into quarantine after colleague tests positive

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Education minister Arie Slob has gone into quarantine after a member of his staff tested positive for coronavirus. Slob was notified of the infection during a debate in parliament on media law.

The debate was immediately abandoned and the meeting room where it was being held was cleared. The 58-year-old said he ‘felt fine’, but would go into self-isolation immediately for 10 days as required by the government’s Covid-19 rules.

He is the first member of the Dutch cabinet to have to quarantine as a result of a coronavirus infection. ‘During the debate I received a message from one of my colleagues stating that the person had been diagnosed with coronavirus,’ he said.

‘Not long afterwards I was notified by the Coronamelder app that I had been in contact with someone who has corona. ‘I have made some enquiries and the outcome is that I must now leave the debate and go into quarantine, as the rules say.’

Slob said on Twitter he would take a coronavirus test ‘as soon as possible’, but later qualified it by adding ‘as soon as I have symptoms’. Only people with symptoms can book in for a PCR test for Covid-19.

(DutchNews)

Read more...

Police break up parties as 300 gather for rave on Hilversum building site

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Police broke up several illegal parties on Saturday night, the biggest of which held on a building site near Hilversum and was attended by some 300 people.

Organised events at which the guests are not seated have been banned under the partial lockdown imposed earlier this month. At least a dozen police cars were sent to the location, close to a railway line, to break up the rave at around 2am.

Two people – the DJ and a woman who kicked a police officer – were arrested. Most of the guests came from Amsterdam, and many had arrived by taxi, but one reveler told the Telegraaf that he had also seen cars with German number plates.

Police described the partygoers as irresponsible and said they had left behind a mountain of waste – including hundreds of balloons which had been used to take laughing gas.

In Hengelo, nine people were fined for taking part in a party at a mobile sauna which had been parked in a car park. In Amsterdam, some 20 fines were handed out to people attending a party at a home near Overamstel.

Police were alerted to the party by neighbours who had complained about the noise. Meanwhile, the ban on the sale of alcohol after 8pm has been extended to hotels, including via room service.

The decision follows reports that people had been booking hotel rooms expressly to drink alcohol, and what officials said was ‘confusion’ about how the ban should operate.

(DutchNews)

Read more...

Opinion is divided about tougher lockdown, as coronavirus cases rise again

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – A number of infectious disease specialists in the Netherlands are calling on the government to impose a tougher lockdown in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus, saying the current measures are not having enough impact.

On Thursday, over 9,000 positive tests were registered with the public health agency RIVM, and although the rate of increase appears to be slowing, they say a ‘short, sharp’ lockdown is needed.

The group, calling themselves the Red Team, have been passing their own recommendations on dealing with the virus to the government for some weeks, and consider themselves an alternative to the official Management Outbreak Team.

Prime minister Mark Rutte has also described them as the group who ‘keep us on our toes’. Red team member Wim Schellekens has now told RTL Nieuws that the rise in the number of infections shows the first measures introduced by the government have not had enough effect.

Schellekens says all shops part from supermarkets and pharmacies should be closed and schools should also shut their doors for two weeks. ‘If we go for a tough lockdown, we will be able to pick up some of our normal lives in two weeks,’ he said.

‘But in the meantime, we need to get the testing and tracing programmes up to speed.’

Too soon

However, Anja Schreijer, a member of the OMT, told broadcaster NOS it is still too early to assess if the partial lockdown is having an impact. ‘You can’t make policy on the day to day figures,’ she said.

‘The partial lockdown was introduced a week ago and people need to adjust their behaviour. Only then will the effect be felt, and you will be able to see it in the figures.’ Meanwhile, the Twente public safety, led by Almelo mayor Arjen Gerritsen, is calling for a total lockdown in the region as the positive test rate there rises to one in five.

‘We have seen an explosive increase in the number of infections,’ he said. ‘This morning we were looking at the potential situation with the celebrations in December. It could be a very quiet month.’ When the partial lockdown was announced earlier this month, the government said it would reassess the situation in two weeks’ time – or by next Tuesday.

However, the partial lockdown would last at least four weeks, Rutte said at the time.

(DutchNews)

Read more...

New coronavirus cases top 10,000, as testing capacity is ramped up

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – The number of newly registered coronavirus cases topped 10,000 for the first time in the 24 hours to Friday morning, figures from national health institute RIVM show.

In total, 10,007 new cases were reported to the authorities, a rise of 726 on Thursday’s figure. Although the number of positive tests has increased, this could also be linked to an increase in testing, which was the case last week, broadcaster NOS said.

Testing capacity has been expanded considerably since early October, thanks to the involvement of foreign labs, and the testing service can now cope with some 50,000 tests a day.

However, the true picture of how fast the virus is spreading will not be available until Tuesday, when the RIVM publishes its latest weekly analysis.

A further 248 people were admitted to hospital overnight, 10 more than on Thursday, and 43 people were taken to intensive care, 13 down on the previous 24-hour period.

Most of those admitted to IC units were already being treated in hospital. The new admissions take the total number of people currently being treated in hospital to 2073, up 70 in 24 hours, while the number of people in an IC ward rose by nine to 472.

A couple of Dutch patients have also been airlifted to hospitals in Germany because of the lack of ward space in the Netherlands.

Government

Despite it being the half-term holidays, ministers are holding an extra cabinet meeting in The Hague to discuss the coronavirus situation in the Netherlands. Jaap van Dissel and the heads of other government think-tanks also met ministers on Friday morning to discuss the crisis.

Prime minister Mark Rutte said when announcing the partial lockdown earlier this month that the situation would be assessed again on by next Tuesday.

(DutchNews)

Read more...

Faecal transplants could revolutionise treatment of diabetes 1

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Amsterdam’s UMC teaching hospital is to be given €1m to investigate the role of gut bacteria in diabetes type 1.

Donors diabetes charities Diabetis Fonds and Stichting DON said the research is ‘a new and unexpected but very promising approach’ to the illness, which affects some 120,000 people in the Netherlands.

In people with diabetes type 1 the immune system prevents the production of insulin, which patients have to administer to themselves. Researchers now think that a faecal transplant may weaken the immune system’s reaction.

The microbiome, or gut, contains bacteria, yeasts and viruses and plays a role in the workings of sugar metabolism and the immune system.

In people with diabetes 1, the composition of microbiome and the gut’s immune system are different and the presence of gut bacteria from a healthy person could help stabilise the illness, preventing peaks or even curing it completely.

The investigation is expected to take five years and could lead to a completely new treatment for diabetes 1, both for people who have just been diagnosed and those who have had the illness for longer, researchers said.

‘I’m very optimistic about the idea of faecal transplants for these patients, also because I’m convinced it will lead to a better understanding of the cause of the disease,’ Professor Max Nieuwdorp of Amsterdam UMC said.

(DutchNews)

Read more...

Seven fast Covid testing centres set to open in November: RTL Nieuws

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – The Netherlands will have seven drop-in centres where people can have a fast coronavirus test in the coming weeks, sources have told broadcaster RTL Nieuws.

The army is being involved in setting up the drive-in centres and will also train people to administer the tests, the broadcaster said. The plan has not yet been confirmed by the health ministry and no-one has yet said where the centres will be located, or which of the fast tests currently on trial in the Netherlands will be used.

Nor is it clear who will be eligible for the quicker tests, which should reduce the need for long periods of self-isolation.

Earlier, health minister Hugo de Jonge suggested the fast tests could be used for people who work in education or healthcare, and other key workers.

The fast tests may also be used for people who are shown to have been at risk as a result of the corona app, De Jonge said. More clarity is expected early next week, RTL said.

(DutchNews)

Read more...

Indoor pollution: proper ventilation while cooking is key, says TNO

SINT MAARTEN/THE NETHERLANDS – Poor ventilation, particularly in the kitchen, is pushing fine particulate pollution levels to above the yearly average considered safe by the World Health Organisation in some Dutch homes according to research institute TNO.

While the probe was too limited for the results to be applicable on a national level, it is a good indication of what is happening in many Dutch homes, TNO researcher Piet Jacobs told the Volkskrant.

In total, 101 homes in the research project provided reliable measurements. Fine particulate pollution causes respiratory problems and increases the risk of heart and lung disease.

TNO, which used sensors to measure particulate levels, measured an average of ten day on which the levels where higher than the WHO norm, with some homes never exceeding the level and some showing excessive levels on more than 35 days.

In winter levels are higher, because windows tend to be closed, the researchers said. Cooking is one of the most important culprits, apart from smoking, which was not included in the probe.

This was because, Jacob said, smoking ‘leaves all other sources of particulates standing’. Peak levels of particulates were measured when people were cooking, the probe found.

Good extraction systems are needed but nothing has been included about their quality in building regulations, Jacob said. Most new builds have a basic system which are incapable of providing enough ventilation, he said, while re-circulation extraction systems only filter the air and do not expel it.

This type of system only removes about 30% of particulates during cooking, the investigation found. The probe found that around half of the fine particulate pollution in the homes came from sources outside, such as traffic and industry and half came from inside.

(DutchNews)

Read more...
Subscribe to this RSS feed

Soualiga Radio