Netherlands sees huge surge in cases after scraping nearly all restrictions; South Korea reports 1,615 new cases as distancing rules tightened
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On Sky News, UK transport Secretary Grant Shapps has backed the decision by Transport for London to require passengers to carry on wearing masks.
Shapps said the decision was in line with what ministers expected after it was announced that most lockdown restrictions in England would end from Monday. PA quote him saying:
Whilst we are going from this being a legal requirement to guidelines, we do expect individual carriers to make sure they are putting in place whatever is appropriate for their network
The airlines have already said that you will need to carry on wearing masks on those. It is very much in line with what we expected – indeed wanted – to happen.
“This is very much in line with what we expected – even wanted – to happen.”
Transport Secretary @GrantShapps says he ‘wanted’ and ‘expected’ some transport organisations to keep on enforcing masks after July 19.#KayBurley
Live #COVID19 updates https://t.co/DCgxFxKjAx pic.twitter.com/8NkinM0HuJ
A bit more on those Netherlands numbers from Mike Corder at Associated Press. He notes that more than 46% of the Netherlands’ adult population is fully vaccinated, and more than 77% of the country’s adults have had at least one shot. Health authorities have said more than 1.3 million people would receive their first or second doses this week.
Health Minister Hugo de Jonge had said Monday that the late June loosening of restrictions combined with a lack of social distancing and the delta variant “has had, of course, an accelerating effect. You can unfortunately see that with hindsight.”
