With UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cumming under fire for leaving London with COVID-19 symptoms during the country’s lockdown, a reminder that some politicians have followed the rules.
The Office of the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, has announced he was unable to visit his 96-year-old mother Mieke Rutte-Dilling in an aged care home in The Hague in the final weeks before her death on 13 May because the Government had closed all homes to visitors almost two months earlier on 20 March.
“The prime minister has complied with all directives,” the PM’s spokesperson said when asked about the reports.
Ms Rutte-Dilling did not die from COVID-19, though there had been an earlier outbreak in the home where she was living, according to the Dutch media.
Mr Rutte had already announced his mother’s death, stating: “We have now said goodbye to her in a family circle and hope to be able to deal with this great loss in peace in the near future.”
The Dutch Government is allowing individual family members to visit some care homes from Monday this week with plans to extend this to all homes on 15 June.
In total, the country has so far recorded over 5,800 COVID-19 deaths and more than 45,000 confirmed cases.
