The first corona patient is a 56-year-old entrepreneur from Loon op Zand | Interior

The infected man recently visited the Lombardy region of Northern Italy, according to the RIVM health institute. To date, seventeen people in Italy have died from the corona virus. It concerns 650 infections throughout Italy.

The man is said to have been on a business trip in Italy. He runs a company in the clothing industry and travels a lot for his work, say acquaintances of the man to BNR Nieuwsradio. He is said to have celebrated carnival in Tilburg and Loon op Zand in several places and on several days.

What that will have consequences for the people in his environment, and for unsuspecting partygoers, must be quickly clear on Friday. The GGD is investigating this. “I expect that we will find out more during the day on Friday. It is very precise work, the GGD staff must either talk to the patient or to relatives with whom he has been in contact. That is very extensive research and that must be done very meticulously, “says a spokesperson for the RIVM.

“Everyone knows him”

The 56-year-old placeholder is a well-known man in Loon op Zand, a North Brabant village with more than 6,000 inhabitants. Almost everyone knows him, say several residents.

In WhatsApp groups in the village, half an hour after Minister Bruno Bruins (Medical Care) announced that the man was in hospital in Tilburg, it was clear that it was about the entrepreneur. People respond to the news with resignation. “We’re not scared or anything,” said someone who had just been to a party in a pub in the village. “People are rather surprised that something from so far away is now here,” someone else expressed the mood.

Mayor: Corona was shocked in my region

The mayor of Loon op Zand, Brabant, Hanne van Aart, is “very shocked” that the corona virus has been detected in her region. “I sympathize with this gentleman and his family. We are working hard to be able to nip this infection in the bud. “

The VVD mayor cannot yet say anything about measures in her municipality, where the 56-year-old patient comes from and has a business. “As soon as I know more, we will inform our residents.” She added that “it is always good to follow the advice of the RIVM, the GGD and our minister.”

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