Yesterday Aruba had 102 new cases of COVID-19, 98 of which are residents and 4 or non-residents. This is alarming, and the hospital is informing us that there are barely any vacancies left because they are filling up. The Netherlands has also labeled Aruba as a risk to travel to.
Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes says that the moment the hospital reaches capacity, the elective procedures must stop. All of this resulted in people having to wait. Another thing that has happened with Aruba is that it is once again code orange. This is because we have over 500 active cases. This means that from 12 am (in Dutch time) on the 24th of March, those who arrived in Aruba have to go into quarantine. Besides this, those who arrive in the Netherlands from Aruba starting on the 27th of March, have to take a COVID test.
This is what the government wanted to prevent when they presented their plan last week for how to avoid escalating the measures. Last week they requested to tighten the reigns, but people were too busy discussing how many people were allowed to be seated at one table. Today the results are visible. According to Wever-Croes, those who got sick are not to blame, but there are consequences for all of Aruba.
Once again, the Prime Minister asks all citizens to take care of themselves and to limit their movements. This means limiting yourself to only what is essential instead of waiting for the government to make it mandatory through rules, prohibitions, closing establishments earlier, or an earlier curfew. She advises everyone to come up with their own rules.
