Iran reports 96 more deaths; Spain’s death toll shows slight rise; Germany calls for ‘very careful’ easing of lockdown; New Zealand says ‘worst is over’
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Contrary to information in a graphic posted earlier on the blog, the Netherlands has put forward plans to begin an easing of its lockdown – and they are proving controversial.
Primary schools and daycare centres are due to reopen in the country in early May, prime minister Mark Rutte announced last week, although class sizes may be cut to accommodate health guidelines, NLTimes reported.
It’s a common sentiment among the general public that we should ‘put a stop to it now!’ But that is not really the goal here. We just want to make sure it spreads in a gradual way, so to speak, while keeping the risk to public health the healthcare system as low as possible. But we do not want to halt it completely, because in that case we would have had to opt for a complete lockdown.
Hello, world. Here is the Dutch #COVID19 approach. Primary schools in The Netherlands are about to be gradually reopened with the explicit intent of allowing the virus to infect the populace, albeit ‘gradually’. Please share. pic.twitter.com/jyHpqk0Wcb
Hospitals in Belgium admitted the lowest number of Covid-19 patients since the start of the lockdown almost seven weeks ago, figures showed on Monday, a week before the country starts to ease restrictions, Reuters reports.
The number of hospital admissions, a key number to monitor the disease’s evolution, fell to 127 on Sunday, the lowest level since 18 March. Daily admissions peaked at over 600 at the end of March and have hovered at around 200 for the past week.
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