Wow! Shutdown with one day's notice
Netherlands to go into Christmas 'lockdown' - PM RutteThe Netherlands will go into "lockdown" over the Christmas period to try to stop a surge of the Omicron coronavirus variant, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said this evening. "I stand here tonight in a sombre mood. To sum it up in one sentence, the Netherlands will go back into lockdown from tomorrow," Mr Rutte told a televised press conference. "The Netherlands is again shutting down. That is unavoidable because of the fifth wave that is coming at us with the Omicron variant," Mr Rutte said.
Earlier today, the Dutch hit the shops as they prepared for the announcement of a Christmas lockdown. The main shopping street in Leiden, 20 kilometres from the capital The Hague, was thronged with people looking for last-minute gifts. Some stores, selling toys or luxury skin care and cosmetics, had queues outside.
Municipal authorities in the port city of Rotterdam urged shoppers via Twitter to stay at home because the city centre was "too busy". "We are extremely worried," about the possible spread of the Omicron variant, Minister for Health Hugo de Jonge told journalists earlier today.
The feared new wave of Omicron infections would further burden the country's strained healthcare system, which is already postponing most routine care and cancelling all but urgent operations in order to cope with Covid-19 patients.
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7k cases today in Ireland. Up from 3.6k cases on Fri and 4k on Thursday. Are we next? Town looked fairly subdued today. Maybe tomorrow will be the tsunami of shoppers?
