Dutch extracted from China arrive in NL; 2 weeks in quarantine

Fifteen Dutch and two Chinese spouses who were evacuated from the city of Wuhan - the epicenter of the new coronavirus outbreak - arrived safely at Eindhoven Airport around midnight, Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs said on Twitter. The group departed from Wuhan during the early hours of Sunday morning, arrived in France at around 2:00 p.m., and then traveled to the Netherlands, NU.nl reports.

The evacuees were received at the military airbase and examined for symptoms of 2019-nCoV by employees of municipal health service GGD. So far none of them showed any symptoms of the virus. They will now spend two weeks in quarantine as a precaution, in their own home if it is suitable for this, otherwise in a central reception location.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs initially said that there were 20 Dutch people in the region of Wuhan who were registered with the local embassy. Not all of them accepted the Ministry's offer of an extraction as not all of them wanted to leave the Chinese region, according to the newspaper.

So far at least 17,205 people in China have been infected with 2019-nCoV and 361 people have died. Outside China there have been at least 132 reported infections and one death, on the Philippines.

People infected with the virus can develop flu-like symptoms and dangerous pneumonia. But it is too soon to say how dangerous the virus is and how quickly it spreads. For comparison, the RIVM reports that around 2 thousand people die of the flu every year in the Netherlands.