The Netherlands will reintroduce several of the country's corona restrictions, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced.

Among other things, there will once again be a requirement for face masks in public places and an expansion of the requirement for a Covid passport.

The reason is that the number of infected people has increased sharply in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, the Dutch equivalent of the Public Health Agency reported that it had noted a 39 percent increase in the number of infected people since last week. The number of hospitalizations had increased by 31 percent during the same period.

"No one will be surprised that we have a difficult message to give tonight," Rutte said at a televised press conference on Tuesday.

– It's troublesome because unfortunately we are forced to ask more of people now that the number of infected people and the number of people hospitalized is rapidly increasing.

The requirement for at least one and a half meters of distance between people is also being reintroduced.

Rutte also urges people to try to work from home for at least half of their working hours and avoid public transport during rush hour.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, almost 18,500 people in the Netherlands – which has a population of just over 17 million – have died with Covid-19.

Source: svt.se