With spring fast approaching, a growing number of people say they feel cafe terraces can be opened safely again.

In total, six out of ten people said they back the measure, in the latest survey gauging support for the government’s coronavirus restrictions.

I&O Research, which has been monitoring support on a weekly basis since March last year, said the finding tallies with a tailing off of support, particularly for measures which are hitting the economy.

At the end of February some 53% of the respondents supported the coroanvirus measures but this has now fallen to 42%, the lowest it has been since the start of the crisis. Most people are still in favour of the general government approach to the crisis but support fell from 75% at the end of January to 62% now.

Up to now support declined when measures were relaxed and increased when the rules were tightened but that is changing, I&O researcher Peter Kanne told broadcaster NOS.

‘The initial consensus about the advantages of a strict policy seems to be disappearing and is being increasingly replaced by diametrically opposed opinion, particularly over whether or not it’s time to allow businesses more breathing space.’

On Tuesday a number of bars opened their terraces to the public in protest against the measures.

Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema, and a number of other mayors, have already called on the cabinet to consider the possibility in order to ‘regulate the public space’.