Patient with new coronavirus in the Netherlands
Publication date 27-02-2020 | 21:19
coronavirus
The new corona virus (COVID-19) was found in a patient in the Netherlands. This has been determined today with lab tests. The patient, who recently visited the Lombardy region, is in isolation. The GGD Municipal Health Service maps contacts of this patient through contact research.
The new coronavirus can spread through drops. For example if someone coughs or sneezes in the face of another. To prevent the disease from spreading further in the Netherlands, the Municipal Health Service (GGD) and the RIVM National Institute for Public Health and the Environment map out who has been in close contact with the infected patient. These people (referred to as contacts) are monitored and must record their temperature twice a day and report this to the GGD. They must also report other complaints that they have. These measures reduce the chance that the disease can spread in the Netherlands.
RIVM remains alert to possible new infections and applies the same protocol when new infections are found: isolation, contact investigation and continuous monitoring of the patient.
Symptoms of the disease are fever and respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath or cough. Someone who has spent the last 14 days in an area where COVID-19 is widespread (such as China, South Korea, but also in some municipalities in Italy) with a fever and one of the aforementioned airway complaints can be tested for COVID-19 , the disease caused by the virus called SARS severe acute respiratory syndrome -CoV coronavirus -2. A doctor can also request this test for someone with these symptoms if he or she has been in contact with a patient with the new corona virus.
RIVM
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