COVID-19 is spreading rapidly over the world. On February 27, 2020, the first patient with COVID-19 was reported in the Netherlands, linked to a trip to Northern Italy. In the following weeks, we identified nine Health Care Workers (HCW) of whom eight had no epidemiological link to countries with a high incidence of COVID-19 at that time. This suggested local spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the community and prompted a low-threshold screening in HCWs. Screening was performed in two large teaching hospitals in the southern part of the Netherlands. HCWs who suffered from fever or mild respiratory symptoms were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR on oropharyngeal samples. Structured interviews were conducted to document symptoms. Eighty-six (6.4%) out of 1,353 HCWs were infected with SARS-Cov-2. The median age was 49 years and 15 (17.4%) were male. Most suffered from relatively mild disease. Only 46 (53.5%) HCWs had fever during the course of illness. Seventy-nine (91.9%) HCWs met a case definition of fever and/or coughing…

Een kat in België is door zijn eigenaar aangestoken met het coronavirus, laten de Belgische autoriteiten vrijdag weten tijdens een persconferentie. Het is voor het eerst dat een besmetting bij een kat is vastgesteld.