The Netherlands will tighten its partial coronavirus lockdown with museums, cinemas, zoos and other public places to close for two weeks, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Tuesday.
Despite falling cases in recent days, the Dutch government is also advising against all foreign travel until mid-January and reduced the number of visitors a household may host to two.
Rutte said the country may also impose curfews in the country's worst-hit areas.
"It is not going badly but it is not going well. The numbers of cases must go down faster," Rutte told a press conference.
"That is a difficult message... but there is no other way."
The Netherlands for months opted for a far more relaxed policy than its European neighbors but ended up with one of the continent's highest infection rates in the second wave of the disease.
It began a partial lockdown on Oct. 14 with all restaurants, bars and cannabis-serving "coffeeshops" closing, as well as mask-wearing made compulsory.
The measures seemed to finally have an effect in recent days with infections falling week-on-week for the first time in two months and cases dropping to 7,776 a day on Tuesday.
But Rutte said there had not been enough progress yet.
"In order to reduce the number of movements and contact, all publicly accessible buildings and through-flow locations both in and outdoors will be closed for two weeks," he said.
"This includes theaters and cinemas, community centers, museums, zoos and amusement parks."
