Prime minister Mark Rutte has called for greater European co-operation to tackle the spread of Covid-19, while acknowledging that synchronising different national healthcare systems would be a difficult task.

In his first public statement since the virus, also known as coronavirus, was detected in the Netherlands on Thursday, Mr Rutte said he had discussed the logistical challenges with European Commission chair Ursula von der Leyden. ‘It’s to do with the fact that the situation is different in each country,’ he said.

The prime minister also rejected suggestions that his cabinet had been too slow to respond to the emergence of the virus. ‘We have to be guided by the compass of those who know the situation,’ he said, referring to the public health agency RIVM.

‘It might be that it becomes bigger at some point and we will need to make more detailed arrangements, but we have to look at each phase as it comes.’

More cases

The number of confirmed cases rose to 18 on Monday as the RIVM announced eight new infections. Most patients are known to have travelled to northern Italy, which has the largest cluster of cases in Europe, or been in contact with another patient.

A man from Houten, Utrecht province, is in solitary confinement at home after testing positive for the virus. He visited a trade fair in Germany last week before going on holiday with his family but has no link to the other infected patients in the Netherlands.

Doctors said a man who was being tested for the virus after developing symptoms in the Maasstad hospital in Rotterdam had not visited any of the infected areas. Infectious disease specialist Jan den Hollander told NOS: ‘Because the patient continued to deteriorate he has been transferred to the Erasmus hospital for respiratory support that we’re unable to offer here.’

Earlier on Monday Nike sent all 2,000 staff home from its European headquarters in Hilversum when one worker was thought to have been infected, the company confirmed to DutchNews.nl.

Local media also reported that Zwolle-based energy company Energie had sent home staff from one department where a female colleague was being tested for the virus.