[Video] Dutch shopping streets before and after lockdown

How did Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s speech and the announcement of a “hard lockdown” change people’s behaviour? Check out this footage of shopping streets and city centres across the Netherlands to see the difference between Monday, December 14 and Tuesday, December 15. 

Dutch cities under lockdown 

After Rutte’s speech on Monday, the Netherlands went into a hard lockdown and non-essential shops and businesses across the country were forced to close until January 19. The Dutch government hoped the harsh measures would encourage people to change their behaviour and would limit the number of people out on the streets. 

And it would seem the lockdown had the desired effect. Look at how busy some of the most popular shopping streets were on Monday afternoon - and how empty they were on Tuesday.

 Source: NU.nl

Before the lockdown was announced on Monday, mayors of a number of Dutch cities including Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and The Hague implored the public to avoid the shopping streets and the city centres as they were already overcome with shoppers. Looking at the empty streets, it's difficult to believe that Christmas is only days away.