Europe Struggling To Halt Coronavirus Surge
By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – The Netherlands is among several European nations stepping up measures to halt a new rise in coronavirus infections.
Backed by the government, authorities in the Dutch capital Amsterdam and the port city of Rotterdam tried to enforce face masks orders in their liberal towns.
And Prime Minister Mark Rutte cut short his summer vacation on Thursday to urge tourists to avoid busy parts of Amsterdam.
“Very specifically for the city of Amsterdam, I say to tourists foreign and domestic, and partly on behalf of the mayor: avoid the busy parts of the city,” Rutte told reporters in The Hague.
Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema on Wednesday, began mandating masks in areas including the central Red Light prostitution district, which is a magnet for foreign tourists.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
That stands in contrast to national policy, as Rutte’s government has said it will not advise the public to wear masks, other than on public transport.
But many visitors to Amsterdam’s narrow lanes and canal-side roads of the historic neighborhood ignored the instructions, despite signs informing people of the new measure in English and Dutch. “I just want to say that it has never been the government’s job to worry about our health. It is our job to worry about our health,” a visitor complained.
“Breathing the cordon dioxide that you let out which is basically waste and you breathe it in again. If you do that eight hours a day, that mask can make you sick and weaken your immune system,” he added. “The government is overreaching trying to force people to wear a mask.”
But another man disagrees. “I think it is important to wear a mask, especially for older people,” he argued in English with a French accent. “Because we need to protect people from infection. Friends from where I come are more conscious about the importance of the mask,” he noted.
And he stressed that “They have to be more concerned here” in Amsterdam. “It is especially important to wear a mask in big streets where many people cross by and where we cannot stand one meter apart from each other.”
MASK PROTESTS
Police in Rotterdam said several people also opposed the mask order staging a protest in the downtown area where masks became obligatory.
The mask orders came into force a day after the Dutch public health institute reported a near-doubling in confirmed infections in a week to 2,588, with a quarter of the people who tested positive aged in their 20s.
Authorities claim Coronavirus infections in the Netherlands have been rising since many restrictions that had successfully reined in the disease were lifted July 1. Critics have linked the rise to increased testing. The Dutch COVID-19 death toll stands at roughly 6,150 confirmed deaths.
Elsewhere in Europe, France, Spain, and Greece say they have recorded their highest number of new coronavirus cases in weeks. France alone said it registered its most daily coronavirus infections in more than two months. Figures released on Wednesday showed 1,695 new cases within 24 hours.
With more than reported 30,000 deaths, France claims to have the third-highest death toll in Europe, behind Britain and Italy.
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