The Netherlands has said it would ease Covid-19 restrictions to allow travel to all European Union countries, including several that had been off limits to Dutch vacationers due to high infection rates, Reuters reports.

At the same time, authorities said they would extend a ban on multiple-day festivals, which were deemed too risky.

The decision was made possible by a relatively high vaccination rate of 50 per cent across the 26-nation bloc and manageable hospital occupancy rates in the Netherlands, the Health Ministry said in a statement.