The number of people known to be infected with coronavirus in the Netherlands rose to six on Saturday after health officials said the partners and one child each of the first two Dutch patients had tested positive.

The wife and daughter of the first patient, a 56-year-old man from Loop op Zand near Tilburg, are being treated at home after twice testing positive for the disease.

And in Diemen, the partner and one of the children of the second victim have also tested positive. All three are being cared for in quarantine at home. The two older children are being cared for by relatives and will not go to school for the next two weeks, broadcaster NOS said.

The daycare centre attended by one of the Diemen patient’s children has been closed for two weeks – the incubation period of the disease – following the positive diagnosis.

Parents of the school attended by the other two children have also been sent a letter urging them to be alert for signs of the disease. The patient had been helping checking the children for head lice at the school premises last Wednesday.

‘We have asked contacts of the infected family members to keep a close eye on their health, so we do have a watching brief on them,’ said Yvonne van Duijhoven of the Amsterdam GGD health board.

‘If they don’t have any symptoms they can carry on with their normal lives because they are not infectious.’

Contacts

The public health institute RIVM, which is monitoring the outbreak nationwide, said a number of contacts of the first two Dutch patients have been tested for the disease but all were found to be negative.

Spokesman Jaap van Dissel said the current pattern of infection in the Netherlands is what would be expected and that more cases are likely in the near future. ‘We are realising that we have had a lot of contact with northern Italy and the situation there is not under control,’ Van Dijssel said. Both the primary Dutch patients had recently spend time in Lombardy, which is at the centre of the Italian outbreak. Symptoms The World Health Organisations says common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. The WHO’s standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing, covering the mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing and thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. People should also avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing, the world health agency said.