Due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the health care capacity in the Netherlands is expected to come under severe pressure in the coming period.

RIVM-experts from the Environmental Assessment Unit (EAU) have undertaken two missions involving an emergency situation in the Solomon Islands and an environmental assessment in Georgia.

The two patients who were diagnosed last week with the MERS coronavirus are now on the mend.

As of 13 May 2014, RIVM and Erasmus MC have diagnosed the MERS coronavirus in two Dutch people. The patients are related and were infected during a joint journey to Saudi Arabia.