THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch government has presented a roadmap for relaxing coronavirus lockdown measures, but caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte is stressing that it’s still too early to ease restrictions. Rutte said Tuesday that hospitals in the Netherlands are as crowded with COVID-19 patients now as they were during the first wave of the pandemic last year and that it would be irresponsible to relax the country’s months-long lockdown now. The government had hoped the first relaxation could have started April 21, but Rutte says that is too soon. He now says the country will ease restrictions “when the peak of the third wave has passed.”
