The coronavirus has hit China in a big way. Last week, the Dutch government looked into evacuating Dutch citizens from the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak- the Chinese city Wuhan. Other European countries had already begun evacuating their citizens.

Dutch citizens evacuated

The Netherlands has now followed suit and evacuated 15 healthy Dutch citizens and two Chinese spouses from Wuhan. The group of evacuees arrived safely at Eindhoven military airbase on Sunday, February 2, at around midnight. Their journey involved a flight to a military base in Marseille, where they arrived around 2pm on Sunday, before journeying onwards to the Netherlands via Brussels.

The 17 evacuees were amongst a group of 250 people flown out of China. During the flight to Marseille, 30 passengers were kept in a sealed-off section of the plane, as they were exhibiting “mild symptoms”, according to a Dutch journalist who was on board.

Two weeks in quarantine

Once arrived in Eindhoven, Municipal Health Service (GGD) employees examined the Dutch evacuees and their spouses for symptoms of the coronavirus. They were also examined before departure in China and France several times. So far, none have shown any symptoms. Despite this, all will now spend two weeks in quarantine. The quarantine can be held in the evacuees’ own homes, as long as these satisfy certain conditions. If these conditions are not met, evacuees will be quarantined at a central reception centre.

On Sunday, the Chinese Health Ministry reported that at least 17.300 people were infected, around 3.000 more than on Saturday. The death toll stands at 362, and all apart from one (a Chinese citizen who had travelled to the Philippines) passed away in China. People in more than twenty other countries have now been diagnosed with the coronavirus. These include Australia, Russia, the United States, Thailand and various European countries.