The opposition in the House of Representatives finds it worrying that it is still unclear how drastic corona measures such as the curfew and the obligation to wear masks are having an impact, especially now that infections are rising again. The parties see the report of the Dutch Safety Committee (OVV) as confirmation of what they have always said.

“Exactly! The effect of the measures restricting freedom is unclear,” says PVV MP Fleur Agema, “but the Minister for Health, Welfare and Sport has submitted a law to the House of Representatives to enshrine them in law.”

Agema is talking about a proposal to amend the Public Health Act that would make it easier for the government to take action if another epidemic occurs.

“Sorry, no surprise”

SP MP Maarten Hijink calls the OVV’s conclusion that too little is known about the effect of the measures, “unfortunately not a surprise, but still very intensive”. He says the opposition has often asked about the effects of the corona debates, but the cabinet “never wanted to seriously examine them”.

“The cabinet is just playing around,” says PvdA boss Attje Kuiken. “No good evaluations or well-founded plans yet. And the number of infections is rising again. I want an approach that everyone can trust.”

‘Cabinet, Learn and Evaluate’

Lisa Westerveld from GroenLinks tweets that everyone understands that in a crisis things go wrong. “But in order to fight the virus effectively and maintain support, we need to know what is working. That is why we are asking the cabinet: learn and evaluate.”

The OVV published a second report on the Corona procedure this morning. The bottom line is that it’s still not clear whether the controversial measures have helped because the government has barely “monitored and assessed” the impact.

The cabinet wants to deal with the current OVV report in the coming weeks. This is followed by a comprehensive statement on the findings and recommendations.

RIVM has not yet provided a detailed substantive response to the report. The institute announces that it will draw up so-called “rules of procedure” for the OMT on the advice of the OVV. In a general sense, such regulations contain fundamental agreements on the distribution of roles and tasks.

GGD relieved

The GGD is pleased about the recognition of the research council. The OVV concluded that the slow start of the first round of vaccinations was not the fault of the GGDs. The cabinet was so focused on the scenario that general practitioners would start testing that GGDs “were only instructed in December to set up large-scale vaccination sites in early January”.

Thanks to a major effort by the umbrella organization GGD GHOR and the GGDs, the gap to other countries was closed in the first quarter of 2021, the report says. “I would therefore like to compliment the thousands of people who have worked to fight the corona pandemic. Both to the many permanent GGD staff and to the people who have provided temporary support,” CEO André Rouvoet told ANP.