A string of new measures have been introduced in the southern Dutch province of Noord-Brabant in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus. Over half of the official Dutch cases so far are in the province and around half of those cases have an unknown source.

Dozens of events, including several Eredivisie football matches and Carnival parades which had already been postponed because of the storms, have been cancelled. In addition, locals have been asked to refrain from social contacts for the next week. This comes on top of earlier instructions to work from home if at all possible.

The new measures, Den Bosch mayor Jack Mikkers said on Tuesday evening, is crucial because ‘coronavirus is getting a grip on our province’.

While the focus of testing for the disease nationwide is on people showing more serious symptoms, tests on 1,000 Brabant hospital staff showing mild symptoms have found the virus in around 4%.

Jaap van Dissel, who heads the Dutch health institute’s infectious diseases unit, told MPs in a briefing on Tuesday that this would appear to show ‘more is going on in Brabant than in the rest of the country’.

‘We are seeing cases which we cannot explain and the research shows that hospital workers have not infected each other,’ he said. ‘This is why we think that the virus is being spread in several parts of the province.’

Coronavirus in the Netherlands: what you need to know

The impact of the virus on tourism in the Netherlands is already being felt, with Amsterdam hotel bookings down 30%, according to Nico Evers, deputy chairman of the capital’s hospitality industry association KHA.

Staff are being asked to take holidays and contracts are not being continued when they expire to cope with the downturn, he told broadcaster NOS. ‘Fewer guests means less cleaning and cooking,’ Evers said.

In Rotterdam and Tilburg, hotels report a rise in cancellations and fewer new bookings. ‘Companies really are taking steps,’ Tilburg hospitality entrepreneur Tim Wijdemans told NOS. ‘They are cancelling bookings and we are getting very few new ones. A week ago we thought we might be okay, but I can see now that it is far from over.’

Shops

The Dutch retail bureau CBL said on Wednesday that shops and wholesalers are now asking their customers to pay by direct debit card rather than cash, because of the risk of infection.

This is because cash transactions involve physical contact with check-out staff and this should be avoided, the CBL said. The issue is not about ‘contaminated money or surfaces such as ATMs because this is not a vector of transmission of the virus,’ CBL director Marc Jansen told DutchNews.nl. ‘Human contact apparently is.’

Italy

Meanwhile, the foreign affairs ministry has produced a Dutch language version of the form everyone wishing to travel in Italy must now carry with them at all times.

The Dutch language version is for information only and does not replace the Italian form, which must be completed to be able to move around or leave the country.

The number of coronavirus infections in Italy has topped 10,000 and 641 people have died. A large proportion of the Dutch infections can be traced to people who were skiing in the Italian alps during the  winter half-term break.

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