According to reports on Dutch news website RTL Nieuws a document leaked to the news outlet from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate showed local R rates dropped when hospitality businesses were open and increased on their closure.
“The analysis states that several measures were taken on 14 October,” a translation of the news report reads, which continues: “The reproduction number (the r-value, the average number of people infected by someone with corona) was 1.08. After those measures, the r-value dropped to 0.82. But on November 13, the r-value appears to have risen to 1.04.”
A conclusion in the report suggested there was no correlation between an increase in coronavirus cases and the hospitality sector being open.
“The influence of the catering industry on the r-number is very small and that the decrease and increase [in infections] since 14 October must be explained differently,” wrote RTL Nieuws.
The report also went on to state that home visits between families and friends was a significant cause of infection rate increases, with some 20% of infections believed to come from homes.
Stats showed that during the Dutch general closure from 6 to 13 November 130 infections came from the catering industry, with 27% specific to restaurants.
However, in the same week 1,046 people had been infected after visiting family or friends in their homes.
As a result, closing the hospitality sector had led to more people visiting in each other’s homes and therefore coronavirus infection rates cannot be linked to one sector, but to “unsafe contact moments”.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.