COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have spread to the Netherlands on 27 February 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands
From left to right: An empty Dam Square in Amsterdam after social distancing measures, military bringing in medical equipment in a hospital, empty shelves in a supermarket because of panic buying.
Confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants by municipality.
Confirmed cases by province from 21 to 31 March 2020.
Disease	COVID-19
Virus strain	SARS-CoV-2
Location	Netherlands
Index case	Tilburg
Arrival date	27 February 2020 (5 years, 6 months and 2 days)
Confirmed cases	43,841[1]
Recovered	unknown[a]
Deaths	5,590[1]

Cases

The first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Tilburg. It was a 56-year-old Dutchman who had arrived in the Netherlands from Italy. As of 14 May, there are 43,481 confirmed cases of infection and 5,590 confirmed COVID-19-deaths.^[1] The first death occurred on 6 March, when an 86-year-old patient died in Rotterdam.^[3]

Response

Measures were taken by the Rutte III cabinet for the public health to prevent the spread of this virus disease, including the “intelligent lockdown”.^[4]

Testing

By mid-March, the country could test about 1,000 samples per day, which is less than other European countries.^[5] This explains the large number of deaths in COVID cases there.^[6]

Notes

1. The Dutch Government agency RIVM, responsible for the constituent country the Netherlands, does not count its number of recoveries.^[2]