THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands was inadequately ready for the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic two years in the past and the federal government paid inadequate consideration to the risk to folks in care properties, based on an impartial inquiry launched Wednesday.
The Dutch Security Board stated authorities within the Netherlands, the place greater than 21,000 persons are confirmed to have died of COVID-19, “grew to become overly fixated” on hospitals within the early days of the pandemic whereas focusing too little consideration on what it referred to as “an unprecedented affect” on nursing properties, schooling, cultural establishments, and enterprise.
The protection board’s chairman, former Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, referred to as the pandemic the nation’s largest social disaster n a long time.
“The Netherlands proved to be susceptible,” Dijsselbloem stated. “This was as a result of constructions the federal government had in place for the well being sector and the disaster response: they fell brief given the character and scope of the disaster.”
The 313-page report, the primary in a deliberate collection by the security board, offers with the pandemic from its inception via September 2020.
The report was vital of the federal government’s strategy to care properties, the place about half of the nation’s COVID-related deaths occurred within the months main as much as September 2020, calling it a “silent catastrophe.”
The protection board, which stated it was necessary to be taught from the disaster, made 10 suggestions aimed toward strengthening preparedness for future crises.
The report included a written response by former Well being Minister Hugo de Jonge, who was a key participant within the political dealing with of the pandemic. He defended the nation’s strategy whereas acknowledging errors,
“Many events and other people — together with in my division — delivered extraordinary work. Issues went effectively, errors had been made, there are nations which have executed higher and fewer effectively,” De Jonge wrote.
He stated the federal government’s care residence insurance policies “didn’t stand alone, however fashioned an necessary a part of the broader technique to guard susceptible folks.”
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