Netherlands narrowly avoided COVID crisis 'eye of the needle,' says ex-PM Rutte

Former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte described the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic as a period when the Netherlands "crawled through the eye of the needle." Testifying before a parliamentary inquiry committee, Rutte stated that the country came perilously close to a "black code" scenario, where hospitals would be overwhelmed and patients would die due to a lack of intensive care beds.

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In the first phase of the coronavirus pandemic, the Netherlands crawled through the eye of the needle.

From mid-March to early April 2020, Rutte explained, the cabinet was consumed by concerns over IC capacity. "We had about 850 IC beds, the prediction was that we would need 2,400," he told the committee. The harrowing images from Bergamo, Italy, where a similar situation unfolded, deeply impacted the government, Rutte said, creating a sense of immense responsibility.

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IC capacity kept me and the rest of the cabinet busy all those weeks.

Rutte clarified that his televised March 16, 2020, speech emphasizing "group immunity" was not a policy goal but rather an expectation that it would be a consequence of the "maximum control" strategy, which aimed to avoid a full lockdown. He acknowledged that this understanding proved incorrect as people could become reinfected.

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We had about 850 IC beds, the prediction was that we would need 2,400. Those were not available.

The former prime minister defended the intensive Sunday meetings held at the Catshuis, the prime minister's official residence, as crucial for discussing new measures without immediate pressure. He noted that these sessions allowed for "extreme" ideas, such as prioritizing certain groups for vaccinations, to be explored. Rutte also admitted to significant internal disagreements among ministers, which he encouraged as a way to thoroughly debate the impact of proposed measures, particularly on the economy.

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The images from Italian Bergamo... hit the cabinet like a 'sledgehammer'.