Netherlands cheers up Taiwan health care workers with tulips

 The Netherlands Trade and Investment Office  gifted tulips to health care workers in Taiwan, as a way to express thanks for their contribution and to celebrate King's Day, the Dutch King's Day.

"Instead of our usual celebration in this serious pandemic, we choose to express our gratitude to the frontline medical staff in Taiwan with 3,999 tulips specially flown in from the Netherlands," the NTIO said in a Facebook post, CNA reports.

According to the post, the NTIO delivered orange tulips and stroopwafels, a famous Dutch delicacy, to 35 locations in Taiwan, including hospitals that are caring for virus patients and Taoyuan International Airport.

The gifts were also sent to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), where they made an appearance at the daily CECC press conference hosted by Health Minister Chen Shih-chung.

"(The gifts) represent our friendship," Chen said.

The NTIO thanked workers at these institutions "for their determined contribution, generous sharing, and vigilant gatekeeping," which it said has "created another Taiwan miracle and deepened the friendship between the Netherlands and Taiwan."

In early April, Taiwan donated 7 million masks to countries in the European Union to aid in efforts against COVID-19, 600,000 of which were given to the Netherlands.

To date, the Netherlands has recorded 38,040 cases of the virus, with 4,491 deaths, according to data from John Hopkins University.