This is the most important corona news of Monday 21 February.
9:05 AM – CBS: fewer foreign tourists, more from our own country
The Netherlands welcomed fewer foreign tourists last year compared to the first corona year 2020. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the number of foreign tourists who booked an overnight stay in the Netherlands fell by 13 percent on an annual basis. Compared to 2019, the last year before the crisis, this was even a minus of 69 percent.
On the other hand, the Dutch more often went out in their own country. This was a plus of 28 percent year-on-year to 25.7 million overnight stays. According to the statistical office, the number of overnight stays was therefore almost at the level of before the crisis.
9:01 am – Union calls on employers to keep workplaces corona-proof
Trade union CNV calls on employers to make the workplace safer against corona infection. According to the union, a poll among its own supporters has shown that many people think that their workplace still leaves something to be desired in this regard. Employees also notice that a lot of infections still take place at work.
In recent days, CNV has surveyed more than 1,400 members in vital professions about how they view matters such as work pressure and safety and about the corona infections in their company. Nearly half (47 percent) indicated that they were not adequately protected against the risk of contamination in the workplace. “This is a high percentage,” says CNV chairman Piet Fortuin. “From previous surveys, 20 percent always indicated that the workplace was not safe against corona contamination.”
9:00 am – CBS: entrepreneurs received 31 billion in corona support until September
Until September last year, entrepreneurs received a total of around 31 billion euros in corona support. This concerns compensation for wage costs and fixed costs during the corona crisis. The hospitality sector received the largest amount and received almost a fifth of the total. This is reported by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
Between March 2020 and September 2021, companies were reimbursed a total of almost 23.6 billion euros in wage costs through the Temporary Emergency Bridging Measure for Employment (NOW). Slightly less than 7.4 billion euros in fixed costs has also been reimbursed under the schemes Compensation for Entrepreneurs Affected Sectors (TOGS) and Compensation for Fixed Expenses (TVL). The option to defer tax payments, various guarantees, loans and small subsidy schemes are not included in the total amount of 31 billion euros.
Up to and including September last year, catering companies received the most support. In total, the sector received 5.9 billion euros. Within the catering industry, restaurants received by far the most corona support, followed by hotel restaurants and cafes.
8:45 am – Beijing closes Winter Games with no corona cases
Beijing has closed the Olympics with a day without corona cases. The organization announced that more than 65,000 tests were carried out on Sunday among the remaining participants in the Winter Games. That only yielded negative results.
In total, China has conducted more than 1.85 million corona tests since January 23 on athletes, coaches, officials, journalists and other stakeholders who were within the closed ‘bubble’ of the Games. Foreigners were immediately tested upon arrival at Beijing airport. All participants had to be tested daily during their stay in China. It yielded a total of 437 positive results: 265 at the airport and 172 in the ‘bubble’. In 98 cases it concerned an athlete and 87 times a team official. The other 252 cases are other ‘stakeholders’, as the organization describes it.
8:00 am – Hospital does not want to lose patient, that inhibits catch-up care
Private clinics have room to treat more patients. Patients often have to wait a long time for treatment because they are on the waiting list of a regular hospital. This is especially true for the treatments that are most often postponed because of corona, such as cataract surgery, knee and hip replacements and the removal of varicose veins.
For a simple MRI scan, patients wait on average six days in a clinic and more than three weeks in a hospital; almost four times as long. This is apparent from an analysis of the waiting times published by the Dutch Healthcare Authority, by Platform for investigative journalism Investico, for Trouw and De Groene Amsterdammer.
Patients who have to wait longer for, for example, a hip replacement are often not in danger of life, but because of the delay they do have extra pain and discomfort. Precisely that planable care – treatments that do not have to take place within six weeks – has often been scaled down in the past two years. According to the Dutch Healthcare Authority, 130,000 operations have been postponed, the Dutch Association of Hospitals says it is still working on catching up until 2023.
7:00 am – Call Rutte: ‘Let’s stand next to each other again’
Prime Minister Mark Rutte calls in an interview in the AD to fraternization now that the corona measures are increasingly being phased out. “My call is now, to myself and to all people: let’s visit each other again. Listen to each other. Stand next to each other.”
He comes with his call in response to the polarization that is going on in society as a result of discussions about corona and corona measures. “As if it is no longer possible to talk about a QR code, a booster or a vaccine, without leading to violent conflicts. The Netherlands has always discussed vigorously. We have no hierarchy. We are direct. But the undertone was always there. one with self-mockery, listening carefully to the other.”
6:00 am – Mayors discuss role in crisis structure
The 25 mayors of the Security Council will discuss digitally on Monday what the role of the security regions should be if there is a national crisis such as the outbreak of corona. As chairman of the security regions, the mayors themselves want to be a link between national decisions and their regional implementation and enforcement.
In December, the Justice and Security Inspectorate published a report on cooperation between regions and central government in the corona crisis. The directors will receive an explanation of that report from Inspector General Henk Korvinus of the Inspectorate on Monday. Justice and Security Minister Dilan Yesilgöz will also attend the meeting.