Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Stock image of a doctor with a blood sample tested for coronavirus
Stock image of a doctor with a blood sample tested for coronavirus - Credit: bestravelvideo / DepositPhotos - License: DepositPhotos
Health
Coronavirus
Covid-19
testing
RIVM
Hugo de Jonge
Ministry of Public Health Welfare and Sports
Monday, 6 April 2020 - 12:00
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Netherlands expanding Covid-19 testing from today

Starting on Monday, the number of daily tests for Covid-19 performed in the Netherlands will be scaled up. Currently some 4 thousand tests per day are done for the coronavirus. In the coming days and weeks, that will be more than quadrupled to about 17,500 tests per day.

Minster Hugo de Jonge of Public Health announced the new test policy last week Tuesday. He wants to ensure that all healthcare workers and the vulnerable people they work with can be tested and protected. The extra tests will initially go to healthcare workers and patients in nursing homes, disabled care, home care, and mental health care. After that, GPs can offer tests to people in risk groups.

In order to increase testing capacity, public health institute RIVM expanded the number of labs that can test for Covid-19 from 15 to 41, NU.nl reports. If necessary, these laboratories can be charged to run 24 hours a day, increasing the possible tests to 29 thousand per day.

The RIVM will keep using its current test kits, which take about 24 hours to confirm a coronavirus diagnosis. Biotech companies are increasingly making faster tests, that can diagnose a Covid-19 infection within a few hours. But these tests are not yet widely available and it is important that all labs test in the same way, a spokesperson for the RIVM said to NU.nl. "If different tests are done left and right, they are of little use in terms of reliability," he said.

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Life sentenced prisoners will get additional year for reintegration
  • GroenLinks members trim list for Senate election after congress
  • Possible passenger ceiling at Schiphol again due to staff shortage, travel agency angry
  • PvdA and GroenLinks in Brabant: only together in provincial government
  • Human trafficking near asylum seekers’ center in Gilze systematically not picked up
  • 20-year-old driver from Utrecht dies in car accident on A6

Top stories

  • Possible passenger ceiling at Schiphol again due to staff shortage, travel agency angry
  • Hoekstra wants to reintroduce conscription
  • EU countries agree on new price cap for Russian oil
  • Hermitage shows Rembrandt and contemporaries from The Leiden Collection
  • Dutch police take down Exclu encrypted chat service with 42 arrests, €4 million seized
  • Signal failure briefly halts train traffic around A'dam; NS warns of significant delays

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content