The Netherlands has started transporting Covid-19 patients across the border to Germany to ease pressure on Dutch hospitals, which are scaling back regular care to deal with a surge in coronavirus cases.

A patient was transferred by ambulance from Rotterdam to a hospital in Bochum, some 240 kilometres east, on Tuesday morning, and another would follow later in the day, health authorities said.

The number of Covid-19 patients in Dutch hospitals has swelled to its highest level since May in recent weeks and is expected to increase further as infections jump to record levels.

Read more from Reuters here.

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