Ajax staffers diagnosed with coronavirus; Healthcare min. to set Covid-19 strategy with EU

The European Ministers of Public Health are meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss a EU strategy for dealing with Covid-19. The coronavirus continues to spread in the Netherlands, with three people working for football club Ajax being among the new diagnoses, according to RTL Nieuws.

The infected Ajax staffers include assistant trainer Christian Poulsen, and two physical trainers and therapists, according to several publications. They were at a birthday party also attended by someone diagnosed with the virus earlier this week, NU.nl wrote.

They are in home quarantine, as is an employee from Maasstad Hospital in Rotterdam. The employee was likely infected after treating a patient who later tested positive. The worker did not treat any patients once their symptoms developed.

Employees from the OVLG Hospital in Amsterdam, the Amsterdam UMC, the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven, and the Jeroen Bosch Hospital in Den Bosch have also been diagnosed with the virus.

Minister Bruno Bruins for Medical Care will represent the Netherlands at the meeting of EU Health Ministers, starting at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, according to BNR. They were invited by EU Commissioner Stella Kyriakides of Public Health to discuss the measures taken at national- and EU level, and what further action should be taken.

Fifteen Dutch tourists who were quarantined in a hotel on Tenerife are on their way back to the Netherlands. They landed in Belgium overnight and are returning home by bus. 900 Groningen students who went skiing in northern Italy are also heading home. They're expected to arrive by bus in Groningen early on Saturday.

On Thursday, Bruins announced that the number of Covid-19 diagnoses in the Netherlands jumped from 38 to 82.