THE HAGUE, April 6. /TASS/. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Netherlands has exceeded 18,000, with as many as 952 people contracting the disease in the past day alone, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said on Monday.

According to its data, as many as 18,803 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus by today. A total of 1,867 patients with coronavirus have died, including 101 in the past day. The number of new cases and fatalities have decreased as compared with the previous day (1,224 and 116, respectively)

The first coronavirus case was confirmed in the Netherlands on February 27 and the first coronavirus-associated death was reported on March 6.

The country’s government has taken a number of measures to curb the infection spread. Thus, people are strongly advised not to go outside and shift to work from home if possible. All educational, cultural and recreational establishments, as well as cafes, bars, restaurants, barber’s shops, sauna baths, and beauty parlors are closed until April 28. All public events are banned until June 1. While outside, people are prohibited to flock in groups of more than three, except families, and are required to keep a social distance of 1.5 meters. Those who don’t comply with these recommendations may face a fine of 400 euro for individuals and 4,000 euro for companies.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. To date, approximately 1,300,000 people have been infected worldwide and roughly 70,000 deaths have been reported.