The current coronavirus crisis has caused uncertainty on all fronts.

One of the groups of people that have been deeply impacted by this uncertainty are international students, who are not sure if they will come to study in the Netherlands or not for the coming academic year, reports NOS.

Survey conducted on potential students

The international student organization called Nuffic conducted a survey on 941 potential students from outside the European Union.

While a majority of them expressed a desire to come study in the Netherlands, 35% of them expressed doubts about their final decisions. The main factors in the doubts come in the form of limited financial opportunities as well as uncertainty over travel restrictions.

Over the past decade, the number of international students from outside the EU has been gradually increasing. This current academic year there are more than 25,000 international non-EU students currently studying in the Netherlands.

Research by the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis shows that international students are a financial asset for the country. Each student brings 96,300 euros to the country, especially if they also stay after their studies to work. If these students no longer come, this will also have an impact on Dutch universities.

Online classes are not an attractive substitute

Dutch universities are already preparing for an academic year held online, at least for the first semester. Some universities are also considering switching their intake moment from September to February.

The international students surveyed do not see online classes as a viable option, however. Only one in 10 students surveyed said they would prefer online teaching.

Murali, a prospective student from India, says he does not see online classes as an effective replacement for physical classes. “I will not enrol at a Dutch university this year for online courses only. I will postpone it until at least 2022.”

He is certainly not alone in this view. 21% of surveyed students from outside the EU said they would prefer to postpone their studies to the Netherlands for at least another year.

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Twenty children in the Netherlands have contracted a serious illness that appears to be related to COVID-19, NOS reports. 

The illness seems to be a combination of two known diseases: the rare Kawasaki syndrome, and Toxic Shock Syndrome. It is thought to be caused by a child’s immune system overreacting to coronavirus, but the link is not fully confirmed yet.

In adults, this heavy-handed response from the immune system is also associated with coronavirus, and can often worsen the course of the disease. In the Netherlands, none of the children with this disease had any underlying health conditions.

Of the 20 children with this illness, only 10 have antibodies against coronavirus. However, these tests are not 100% accurate, so generally the whole situation needs more research before anything concrete connections can be drawn.

After this disease came to light worldwide about a month ago, the NVK asked all paediatricians to report the illness when they diagnosed it. From that, the NVK has compiled a report on the symptoms of this disease.

The disease is present in several countries worldwide, and in France and New York City in the US, children have died from it. In the Netherlands, no children have died from it, but it is also not known from this study how well they have recovered.

Should the government change its plans to fully reopen primary schools on 8 June, or go ahead despite this disease? Let us know in the comments below.

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The RIVM has published the latest count of coronavirus cases in the Netherlands for today, May 25.

The Dutch infection count has risen by another 209 cases in the past 24 hours. It brings the Netherlands’ total to 45,445 cases since the original outbreak in March.

The number of hospital admissions continues to drop, with only 8 people considered to be in a serious condition to be hospitalized in the past day. In the same time period, 8 people died as a result of COVID-19. The total Dutch death toll now stands at 5,830.

There is often a delay in the reporting of figures, so these numbers may be adjusted.

Private party across the border in Germany leads to 18 cases of coronavirus

Close to the Dutch border, a host threw a private party to celebrate the easing of coronavirus measures. Unfortunately, as the guests did not take any safety precautions, 18 of them got sick with the coronavirus. A further 118 guests now have to enter quarantine. While we might be easing off measures, the threat from the coronavirus is far from over.

Dutch primary school students’ learning undeterred by the pandemic

It’s been almost two weeks since primary schools partially reopened in the Netherlands. Prior to this, students were unexpectedly homeschooling as part of social-distancing measures.

According to a survey by the General Association of School Leaders (AVS), this hasn’t put the students far behind where they should be. 90% of professors surveyed said that their students’ learning went unaffected, while the rest will receive special attention in order to bring them up-to-date with their learning.

22% of slaughterhouse workers infected with coronavirus in Groenlo plant

At a slaughterhouse in Groenlo, 22% of the workers got infected with the coronavirus. This signals the poor working and living conditions these workers face, which was a great issue even before the outbreak of the pandemic.

The cramped living conditions for these workers might have been one of the biggest factors in the spread of the virus, as they live in housing owned by the employment agency. The rooms are small and the workers need to share them, as well as other amenities.

In either case, the Netherlands should make more controls at such facilities in order to ensure labour laws are respected and that the living conditions are adequate, to avoid other outbreaks.

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Primary schools have been partially open for almost two weeks now, and we’re beginning to see how the weeks of homeschooling have affected the students. Luckily, it seems to be mostly good news, NOS reports.

Primary school teachers were asked by General Association of School Leaders (AVS) about how their students had progressed during their time away from school. 90% said that the progress of their students was constant: that is, that the coronavirus crisis hadn’t had much of an impact on their learning progress.

10% of those surveyed reported a delay in their students’ learning, and 1% said that the delay was serious. “Plans are already being made for students where a delay in progress has been identified,” said AVS Vice President Ingrid Doornbos. She also mentioned that in some schools, students’ learning progress was actually ahead of where it might otherwise have been.

AVS praises teachers and parents, but warns that the crisis isn’t over yet

The AVS was quick to praise parents and teachers for how they had handled the crisis: teachers had created online learning systems in an extremely short space of time, and parents had successfully juggled working from home and homeschooling.

But the impact of coronavirus on primary schools is not over yet. There are still going to be issues with teachers being able to teach: some may be in a risk group, some may have cold symptoms and need to stay home, and others may have ill family members.

It is also not clear yet how schools are going to manage parents who decide not to send their children back to school. As of yet, there are no plans to provide online education for these children.

How do you feel that coronavirus has impacted children’s education? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

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More than 22% of the workers at a meat processing plant in Groenlo were infected with coronavirus when tested. These infection rates are thought to be down to the workers’ poor living conditions rather than the fact that they work with raw meat.

Of the 657 employees of Vion’s meat processing plant in Groenlo, 147 were found to be infected with coronavirus. 79 of the infected employees live in Germany, and 68 live in the Netherlands.

The GGD is conducting a source and contact investigation to track the spread of the virus, and all workers and their housemates must self isolate. Vion has shut down this particular processing plant but is continuing its operations in other Vion locations in the Netherlands.

Cramped living conditions of workers probably increased the spread of the virus

The majority of the workers at the meat processing factory are migrant workers from Eastern Europe. Their living conditions are cramped and crowded: workers often have to live together in housing owned by the employment agency that they are attached to.

The conditions in these shared houses are cramped, which makes transmitting the virus easy. Two workers will usually share an 8m2 or 10m2 room, and share other facilities in the house with multiple people. Additionally, when commuting to the factory, workers usually travel all together in a van, which again creates the perfect conditions for the virus to spread.

Working conditions in the factory probably also played a role

The problems don’t end there, though: social distancing at the factory is also impossible, it seems. In a survey conducted by the FNV, 30% of those surveyed could not keep distance when working, washing hands, or changing clothes.

This is not an isolated problem: slaughterhouses have been hotspots for coronavirus outbreaks in the US and Germany already during the crisis. It is unlikely that the workers are catching coronavirus from the carcasses, as coronavirus has mostly been a human-to-human transmitted disease. However, the Netherlands is investigating a possible case of mink-to-human transmission on a mink farm.

No impact on food safety

Consumers are not at risk of getting coronavirus from eating meat processed in one of these plants, however, according to NVWA spokesperson Tjitte Mastenbroek in an interview with NU.nl. “Firstly, there are no known cases of people becoming infected with food. The European Food Authority (EFSA, ed.) Pointed out this earlier. In addition, the virus needs a living body to survive and there is enough time between the meat is in the factory and is with the consumer.”

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The RIVM has published the latest count of coronavirus cases in the Netherlands, for Sunday the 24th of May.

The new count reveals that there are 172 more detected cases in the Netherlands, with a total of 45,236 cases registered ever since the outbreak began.

Serious cases of the coronavirus lead to the hospitalization of a further 13 people.

Unfortunately, ever since the last count, 11 people have succumbed to the virus. Nationwide, the coronavirus has caused 5822 deaths.

Yesterday, Saturday the 23rd, deaths and hospitalisations remained low, with 23 deaths and 10 new hospitalizations reported.

Half of Dutch people still don’t wash their hands despite the pandemic

Washing your hands is one of the most important measures you can take to protect yourself from the coronavirus.

The Dutch people already have a bad track record when it comes to washing their hands, and the pandemic seems to not have changed that too much. An investigation by the RIVM on the efficacy of different coronavirus measures revealed that only 48% of them wash their hands.

Conspiracy theories take hold in the Netherlands during the pandemic

Conspiracies and fake news have spread virally during the pandemic in the Netherlands, but also throughout the world.

One of the most popular conspiracies in the Netherlands is about 5G towers, which has lead to arsonist attacks on broadcasting towers.

Beyond that, there have been protests in The Hague and Utrecht, which promoted a wide range of conspiracies, ranging from a connection between 5G and the coronavirus, as well as anti-vaccination messages.

What’s certain is that social media platforms have a great responsibility to identify and remove any such conspiracy theories, which as of now are propelled by the algorithms for their potential as viral content.

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