It remains to be seen what we can or cannot do for Christmas. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tightened nationwide coronavirus restrictions on Sunday after the country registered a record number of new cases. Cinemas, theaters, gyms and swimming pools must all close under the new rules, which take effect Monday. Furthermore, restaurants and cafes have to stop serving at 18.00 pm now Italy reported nearly 20.000 new corona infections within a 24-hour period.

At the Catshuis today, a part of the cabinet, led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, consulted with experts including Jaap van Dissel of the RIVM about the approach to the corona crisis. This week, the cabinet will take stock of the results of the partial lockdown. In the meantime, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wants the second State of Alarm, a kind of state of emergency but one step lighter, to last until May 9 for no less than six months. The corona epidemic has broken a new record in France with 52.010 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, official figures indicate Sunday.

Christmas in a small circle

On Sunday morning, some 230 people attended the service in Leerdam in the Sealthiëlkerk. Illegal parties were closed last weekend and yet we think it will be a normal Christmas again this year. Visiting a long party table with family or grandparents is suddenly no longer self-evident for the coming holidays. Half of the people do not dare to make plans for the end of the year, because it is all so uncertain at the moment. 

The Netherlands will probably go into a complete lockdown if the number of corona infections does not level off next week. Perhaps hope can be drawn from the latest virus figures. The number of infections is still increasing, but no longer exponentially.

 Also read: Mobility towards full lockdown for Red Team