More than two years after the outbreak of the corona virus in the Netherlands, the main corona measures that were still in force will come to an end on Wednesday. Anyone who wants to go to a major event or a large nightclub no longer needs to be tested in advance. Face masks are no longer mandatory in public transport and the advice to work from home from the government is cancelled.

People who enter the Netherlands from other EU countries no longer need to have a QR code to show that they have been vaccinated, recently tested or recovered from a corona infection. This also applies to countries that are not part of the EU, but that do belong to the Schengen area with open borders: Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

The cabinet has relaxed the corona measures, because the omikron variant of the virus that has been circulating in recent months usually makes people less ill than previous variants. In intensive care units, the number of corona patients is quite stable at a much lower level than when the delta variant prevailed.

What remains is the basic principle that people who have complaints should stay at home and be tested. According to the government, preventive testing is no longer necessary. However, the advice remains to ventilate indoor spaces well, get corona vaccines, wash hands regularly and cough and sneeze into your elbow. In general, the government calls on people to take each other into account and, for example, to keep their distance if someone asks to do so.

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