THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch caretaker prime minister has announced a significant easing in his country’s months-long coronavirus lockdown. Mark Rutte called the decision Tuesday a delicate balancing act as infections remain stubbornly high. The decision to cautiously relax restrictions reflects difficult choices being made in many countries as lockdown fatigue grows even as positive cases keep rising. Earlier in the day, the country’s public health institute said that the number of people who tested positive over the last week rose by 5.3% to nearly 54,000. Even so, Rutte he was taking “a careful step” to ease the lockdown because of predictions that the infection curve is flattening and modeling shows that a decline in hospital occupancy is approaching.
