No roadmap that states which number of infections are followed by which measures. No hard instructions for the security regions to locally suppress any revival of the virus. No corona hospitals or grand plans to expand IC care. And, no more mass testing. As of April 11, the advice to go to the GGD for confirmation after a positive self-test will expire.
As long as that goes well, the thought that involuntarily arises when reading the ‘long-term strategy for tackling covid-19’ that the cabinet presented on Friday.
When autumn comes and the corona season starts again, the ball is mainly with the citizen and the middle class. He must then be responsible for testing himself, he is expected to hang the transparent splash screens at the checkout again or to lead the public again through fixed walking routes through the store.
aloof government
‘The Netherlands is open and we want to keep it that way’, is the motto as far as Minister Ernst Kuipers is concerned. The government itself will soon be strikingly aloof. Certainly, The Hague promises to ensure that the right vaccines and any medicines are available on time, especially to protect the elderly and the vulnerable. But otherwise ‘shared responsibility’ is the ‘starting point’, according to the strategy.
‘Society as a whole contributes together to the elaboration and implementation of the strategy’, the cabinet writes. For example, ‘sector plans’ must be drawn up in the coming months, stating what different sectors can do themselves to become more corona-proof. Hybrid working will probably become the norm in the meantime, the government foresees, if only because both employers and employees want it.
The palette of future scenarios that the Ministry of Health must take into account is wide. At best, corona continues to circulate as a shadow of what it once was – a virus that certainly does not cause much more in vaccinated people than a few headaches or colds. But the virus can also return in a renewed, ‘mutated’ form, the ministry acknowledges. Maybe even with a variant that partially evades vaccine protection, so that the whole thing starts all over again.
QR codes
For the latter case, the cabinet is keeping the knot behind: the controversial corona access codes remain a possibility. Only now it is said that the QR codes must be ‘available to the sectors as an instrument’ to keep the virus under control.
The government is also reticent with regard to healthcare. Instead of corona departments, it wants a ‘flexible response’ in the event of an outbreak, for example by caring for patients who need oxygen at home. In addition, the cabinet wants to prevent overloading of care by smarter distribution of healthcare staff and patients. The cabinet is setting to work two advisory clubs to develop those plans in the coming months.
Finally, strikingly, in the event of a possible revival of the virus, Kuipers is considering deploying an ‘MIT’, a ‘social impact team’ in addition to the OMT. This should provide an economic and social counterbalance to the medical advice. This seems to be at odds with the lack of administrative decisiveness complained of by the Dutch Safety Board in its evaluation of the corona crisis. But this is not discussed in the long-term strategy.