Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte extended his country’s tough, five-week lockdown by another three weeks on Tuesday.
Authorities are concerned that infection rates are not falling quickly enough and worried about the new, more transmissible variant first detected in the UK.
“Almost everybody will understand that there was no other choice,” Mr Rutte said.
He said the lockdown would last until February 9.
Under the restrictions, all schools and non-essential shops are closed, along with cinemas, museums and libraries. There also are strict limits on the size of gatherings indoors and outside.
Mr Rutte said that pupils preparing for final high school exams and vulnerable children, who are still allowed to attend schools, must stay at least 1.5 metres apart where possible.
He said the government asked health authorities for advice about whether a curfew would help to drive down infection rates.
The government has so far avoided imposing the measure during the pandemic.
“We are in a serious new situation,” Mr Rutte said of soaring infections in Britain.
Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said that the variant now made up between 2 and 5 per cent of Dutch infections.
“The expectation is that it will, just as in England, get the upper hand,” Mr de Jonge said.
Earlier, the Dutch public health institute announced that the number of new coronavirus infections in the country had fallen for the second week in a row.
It said the decrease was “the first effect” of the nationwide lockdown that began in mid-December.
Confirmed new Covid-19 infections over the past week fell 12 per cent to 49,398, the institute said.
Hospital admissions for people with the coronavirus fell 18 per cent and new Covid-19 patients in intensive care units declined by 12 per cent.
The overall Dutch death toll from Covid-19 is now more than 12,500.
On Wednesday, a mass testing programme will start in a municipality just outside Rotterdam, the country’s second-most populous city, after a cluster of Covid-19 infections linked to an elementary school included at least 30 cases of the new variant.
Last week, the Netherlands became the last EU country to begin vaccinations against Covid-19, with front-line hospital staff and carers for vulnerable members of society the first to receive shots.
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Sunday:
GP3 race: 12:10pm
Formula 2 race: 1:35pm
Formula 1 race: 5:10pm
Performance: Guns N' Roses
The biog
Family: wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren
Reads: Newspapers, historical, religious books and biographies
Education: High school in Thatta, a city now in Pakistan
Regrets: Not completing college in Karachi when universities were shut down following protests by freedom fighters for the British to quit India
Happiness: Work on creative ideas, you will also need ideals to make people happy
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Opening weekend Premier League fixtures
Weekend of August 10-13
Arsenal v Manchester City
Bournemouth v Cardiff City
Fulham v Crystal Palace
Huddersfield Town v Chelsea
Liverpool v West Ham United
Manchester United v Leicester City
Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur
Southampton v Burnley
Watford v Brighton & Hove Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Everton
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
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Friday’s fixture
6.15pm: Al Wahda v Hatta
6.15pm: Al Dhafra v Ajman
9pm: Al Wasl v Baniyas
9pm: Fujairah v Sharjah
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
How Islam's view of posthumous transplant surgery changed
Transplants from the deceased have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, the practise was banned until relatively recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
The body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed, and among scholars and indeed many in society, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
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The biog
Marital status: Separated with two young daughters
Education: Master's degree from American Univeristy of Cairo
Favourite book: That Is How They Defeat Despair by Salwa Aladian
Favourite Motto: Their happiness is your happiness
Goal: For Nefsy to become his legacy long after he is gon
pakistan Test squad
Azhar Ali (capt), Shan Masood, Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Fawad Alam, Haris Sohail, Imran Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Abbas, Yasir Shah, Usman Shinwari
