This is the most important corona news of Tuesday 15 February.
07:13 am – Research: slightly more than half of the Dutch are behind corona policy
Slightly more than half of the Dutch now support the cabinet’s approach to the corona crisis, according to a study by I&O Research commissioned by the NOS on Tuesday. Last month it was still 45 percent, which has increased to 51 percent.
The investigation was conducted between February 11 and 14, when plans for the far-reaching relaxations that are likely to be announced Tuesday evening had already been announced.
03:40 AM – Dutch economy probably shrunk slightly due to omikron
The Dutch economy shrank slightly in the last quarter of last year under pressure from the omikron wave and the new lockdown. At least that is the average expectation of economists polled by the Bloomberg news agency. On Tuesday, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) will provide an initial estimate of how the Dutch economy has performed in the past period.
The experts assume a contraction of the gross domestic product (GDP) of 0.3 percent compared to the previous quarter. The Netherlands came back with strict corona measures in November and in December in particular. As a result, the catering and non-essential shops had to close again. This is likely to have weighed on consumer spending. Due to recent high inflation, many people don’t think it’s a good time to make major expenditures anyway.
03:35 AM – Minister Kuipers announces whether corona relaxation will continue
The cabinet will decide on Tuesday whether the relaxation of the corona rules that was expected last week can continue next weekend. Healthcare Minister Ernst Kuipers will announce this in a press conference in the evening. For the first time since the start of the corona crisis, Prime Minister Mark Rutte is not among them. He has a debate in the Senate.
The cabinet already announced last week which measures it wants to relax. In theater and concert halls and stadiums, it wants to remove the mandatory 1.5 meters away, so that many more people can enter a performance or match. It also wants to extend the opening hours for the catering industry to 01.00 at the latest and delete the advice to work from home.
03:30 am – Number of new corona cases is falling, but pressure on care is increasing
The number of new corona cases seems to have started to fall. The number of positive tests is slowly getting lower than in recent weeks, when the wave swelled to record highs.
The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) reports every Tuesday how many positive corona tests have been registered in the previous seven days. Last week, the institute reported a record 824,301 cases, but that was also because a large backlog was cleared in one go. Without that catching up, there would have been more than 608,000 positive tests in a week. That too would have been a record.
00:05 hours – CBS: labor market in fourth quarter 2021 even tighter
The shortage on the labor market has increased even further in the fourth quarter of 2021, reports the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). For example, 16,000 vacancies were created and the number of unemployed fell by 29,000. The total number of employee and self-employed jobs also grew. In the last months of the year, 44,000 jobs were added, an increase that is less than in the past two quarters.
At the end of December there were 387,000 vacancies. That was 16,000 more than at the end of the third quarter. The increase is less strong than in the previous three quarters, but again surpasses the record of 372,000 jobs in the months of July, August and September. The number of vacancies fell in the catering, culture, recreation and other services. In the last weeks of December, there was again a lockdown, which forced many restaurants, cafes, theaters and cinemas to close.