Councils struggling to keep nightspots safe as
infections rise again Corona
July 6, 2021 Photo: depositphotos
Local authorities are struggling to enforce
the coronavirus rules since they were relaxed to allow bars and nightclubs to
reopen without limits on the numbers of customers. A survey of 15 urban
municipalities by Trouw newspaper found most councils had issued just a handful
of fines or warnings since the rules changed on June 26. Many said they did not
have the resources or were unwilling to ‘act the policeman’ in nightspots. The
reopening of nightlife has triggered a surge of infections in cities such as
Groningen, where the number of people testing positive has quadrupled in the
last week, and Enschede, where 180 infections have been traced to an outbreak
in the Aspen Valley club. The rules allow venues to reopen fully as long as
people observe the 1.5 metre distance rule or the venue signs up to the ‘test
for entry’ system and requires all guests to produce a negative coronavirus
test result on the door. Some revellers reported they were able to bypass the
system by sharing negative QR codes, while others were given negative results
on the opening weekend as ‘compensation’ because of problems processing their
actual result. At least one man in Amsterdam went out while infected after he
was given the wrong test result. Groningen council had just five enforcement
officers checking the city’s bars, while in Utrecht 12 officers, working in
pairs, were doing the rounds, Trouw reported. Other councils said they were not
applying the rules in a heavy-handed way. ‘If we see things getting out of hand
or we get a large number of complaints, we’ll step in,’ a spokesman for Haarlem
council told Trouw. Few fines Marieke Ruijgrok, of Utrecht city council, said
officers would speak to bar owners and guests about the rules and only issue
fines if the dialogue approach failed. ‘Nobody wants a corona fine of thousands
of euros, especially not at a time like this,’ she said. In some towns and
cities cafe owners have closed their doors voluntarily because of concerns
about the risk of infection. Four bars in Maastricht told 1Limburg on Monday
they were closing after 17 members of staff tested positive following a weekend
barbecue. Justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus insisted on Monday that the test
for entry system was working, but admitted that there would ‘always be people
who manage to fiddle it.’ ‘I’d say to those people, don’t do it, because we
want to be able to get through the summer.’
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