Rotterdam event center Ahoy saw its plans for this year change drastically due to the coronavirus. Instead of hosting the Eurovision Song Contest, Ahoy is now is ready to start taking in patients who need care, but are not so sick as to need hospital treatment. As of Monday, the event center has 88 beds available. If necessary, this can increase to 680 beds, ANP reports.
Ahoy can take in coronavirus patients, but also patients with other illnesses, the center said.
Congress center RAI in Amsterdam and event hall Ahoy in Rotterdam are looking into whether and how they can serve as emergency locations to take in patients during the coronavirus crisis, the two venues confirmed to BNR.
RAI CEO Paul Riemens met with Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema on Wednesday. Nothing concrete has been decided yet, he said to the broadcaster. "But if indeed it turns out that there will soon be too few beds, it is expected that an appeal will be made to the RAI," he said.
Eight people were hospitalized with injuries sustained in a fire in an apartment building in Rotterdam Zuid on Sunday night. Among the injured are a baby and a woman who jumped from a second floor window when smoke prevented her from using the stairs, AD reports.
Emergency workers checked a total of 25 people for injuries. Many of them suffered from smoke inhalation. Eight people were taken to hospital by ambulance, including the woman who jumped out of the window and the baby. The extent of their injuries is unclear.
One participant of the Rotterdam marathon died in hospital, the organizers behind the marathon said on Sunday. At the request of the runner's family, no further details will be given. The organization expressed its deepest sympathies to the runner's family and loved ones, RTV Rijnmond reports.
The first aid and emergency posts were extremely busy during the marathon, according to Arjen Littooij, director of safety office Veligheidsregio Rotterdam-Rijnmond. He believes this had to do with the relatively high temperatures this year.
The canteen of football clubs V.V. Deltasport and Cion on Kooikersweg in Vlaardingen was completely destroyed by a fire on Thursday morning. The building has since collapsed. At around 5:30 a.m. the fire department said that the building can no longer be saved, but emergency services did manage to prevent the fire from spreading to the adjacent gallery, RTV Rijnmond reports.
An apartment complex on Galvanistraat in Rotterdam was evacuated on Wednesday evening due to flooding after a fire. A total of 250 people were asked to leave their homes. Two residents were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, NU.nl reports.
The fire was extinguished fairly quickly. It set off the building's sprinkler system, which caused a lot of water damage, local safety office Veiligheidsregio Rotterdam-Rijnmond said. A number of electrical installations were affected.
A cruise ship that arrived in Rotterdam on Thursday morning spent several hours in quarantine due to sick passengers. Dozens of passengers suffered from stomach problems, presumably due to a norovirus infection, NOS reports.
The norovirus causes gastroenteritis and is highly contagious. The ship, named AidaPerla, moored at the Wilhelminakade in Rotterdam on Thursday morning. During the trip around 70 passengers reported with symptoms of gastroenteritis. They were cared for on board.
Hundreds of oil covered swans were captured out of the water at Maassluis and taken to a bird shelter on Sunday, following an oil spill in the Derde Petroleum port in Rotterdam on Saturday. Around 15 animal ambulances and several boats from the fire brigade helped to capture the animals. There is great concern that several swans will not survive, RTL Nieuws reports.
From today until Thursday the port of Rotterdam will be the scene of large drills on what to do during terrorist attacks or other large emergencies and threats. The port protection exercise is called "Port Defender Rotterdam" and includes the Royal Navy, the National Police, the Port of Rotterdam and the local safety office Veiligheidsregio Rotterdam-Rijnmond, AD reports.
A total of 16 people were taken to various Rotterdam hospitals on Sunday night to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. The poisonous gas was released into their homes by a faulty heating system in their apartment building on Wuysterstraat in Rotterdam-Zuid, RTL Nieuws reports.
A spokesperson for safety office Veligheidsregio Rotterdam-Rijnmond confirmed to the broadcaster that all 16 people were hospitalized and that their current conditions are unclear. He added that he expects they will all be able to return home in short order.
