Dutch probe criticizes government's pandemic response

An independent report on the Dutch response during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic says the Netherlands was inadequately prepared

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The Netherlands was inadequately prepared for the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago and the government paid insufficient attention to the threat to people in care homes, according to an independent inquiry released Wednesday.

The Dutch Safety Board said authorities in the Netherlands, where more than 21,000 people are confirmed to have died of COVID-19, “became overly fixated” on hospitals in the early days of the pandemic while focusing too little attention on what it called “an unprecedented impact" on nursing homes, education, cultural institutions, and business.

The safety board's chairman, former Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, called the pandemic the country's biggest social crisis n decades.

“The Netherlands proved to be vulnerable," Dijsselbloem said. "This was due to the structures the government had in place for the health sector and the crisis response: they fell short given the nature and scope of the crisis.”