Dutch update Italy travel advice as coronavirus takes hold

The Dutch foreign ministry has again updated its travel advice for Italy, advising people not to travel to a number of places in the north of the country near Milan where the coronavirus has taken hold.

In addition, travellers are being warned to be careful if heading for Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna as well as Rome and Lazio, the ministry said. So far some 220 have been infected with coronavirus in Italy and seven have died.

So far no cases of the coronavirus, renamed Covid-19, have been identified in the Netherlands.

Everyone who visits their doctor with a cough or sneezing and has visited a risk area is currently being tested.  None of the 40 people tested in the Netherlands have been found to have the disease, the public health institute RIVM said on Tuesday.

The virus has now spread to the Canary Islands. At least 13 Dutch nationals are among the estimated 1,000 holidaymakers who have been quarantined at a hotel on the holiday island of Tenerife. One of the hotel guests, an Italian doctor from the north of the country, has been diagnosed with the disease.

Masks

Meanwhile, the Dutch Red Cross has carried out research which shows many people do not understand the best way of using face masks to prevent against infection.

In principle only the emergency services, health service workers, carers and people with a temperature or breathing problems need wear a mask in the affected areas, the Red Cross said.

And wrongly using the mask, such as touching the outside and repeatedly using the same one, is likely to increase the risk of catching the disease, the Red Cross said.