Corona may seem far away for many people, but experts fear new lockdowns later this year. Health Minister Ernst Kuipers wants sectors to take responsibility themselves and prepare for a possible autumn wave. The culture and catering sector in Brabant bounces that ball back. “Our plans are ready, but those of the government are not yet.”
Mouth caps, one and a half meter ribbons and an endless supply of hand soap. Director Rob van Steen of Theaters Tilburg shows the neatly arranged boxes of corona ‘souvenirs’. Now they are superfluous, but if a new corona wave comes later this year, they will be taken out of the stable in no time.
“What is missing are clear signal values, which the government must draw up.”
And that is perhaps even more true for the ‘corona sector plan’ of the Cultural and Creative Sector Taskforce. This contains measures that the industry takes into account: from corona tickets to mouth caps policy. And keep a distance of one and a half meters from separate walking routes.
“These protocols are all ready,” says Van Steen. “But what are missing are signal values: from which moment do you introduce which measures? What we need is a kind of alarm system, in which it is clear to everyone: you implement certain measures from this level of contamination. The government must provide that clarity.”
Ruud Bakker of the Eindhoven Royal Horeca Netherlands department wholeheartedly agrees. “We want to think about what we can do. We have all kinds of protocols ready.” This way, the catering man knows exactly how many tables will fit in his business, if the ‘one and a half meter measure’ returns.
“We want more clarity. What Kuipers is saying now is very vague.”
“Now it is said: prepare. But for what and when? Within which frameworks should we prepare? If we know that, then we can do something with it,” says Bakker. “We want more clarity. What Kuipers is saying now is very vague.”
So clarity, the frameworks, a plan. That is what Bakker and Van Steen want from Minister Kuipers of Public Health. That is more or less in line with what healthcare and virus experts are concerned about. In the absence of a clear corona strategy, lockdowns are coming back into the picture, wrote the NOS earlier this week.
Kenny Meesters, who specializes in providing information during disasters, understands the call of the catering and cultural sector. “Kuipers’ message – prepare yourself – is important. But it is quite vague and abstract. Of course we don’t know if, where, when and how bad it will get.” According to Meesters, Minister Kuipers would do well to offer handles.
“We saw earlier that many things were decided ad hoc.”
This is in line with what Van Steen and Bakker are asking for on behalf of their sectors. “We saw earlier that many things were decided ad hoc”, Van Steen outlines. We were always taken by surprise: we, the artists, but also the public. The virus may be unpredictable, but how we react to it is not. we know how it works. The government must therefore come up with clear signal values. Then everyone knows where they stand.”
According to Van Steen and Bakker, one thing must be prevented at all costs: closing the doors again. “Everything should be aimed at that,” Van Steen is clear. According to Bakker, many catering companies would not survive that either. “That will be very difficult.”